Donald Trump Jr leads campaign to overturn restrictions on gun silencers despite mass shooting fears

The country’s largest gun rights lobbying group, the National Rifle Association (NRA), is backing legislation that would make it easier for people to buy silencers, or suppressors. Restrictions on their sale were first introduced during the administration of Franklin D Roosevelt, and advocates say the sound of a gun being fired acts as a loud, obvious safety signal for people to take cover, run the way other way or simply be alert.

They say that while there is little evidence that gun crimes are committed with weapons fitted with silencers, they fear that if suppressors were easier to obtain, so might their use in armed crimes. They also say that the bill’s sponsor's justification for the measure - that it is to protect people from suffering hearing damage - is countered by the simple use of ear plugs or noise cancelling headphones.

“The NRA wants to get a weapon that has a stealth capability onto the market,” Andrew Patrick, a spokesman for the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, told The Independent.

“They’re looking to sell more weapons. The NRA and others are latching onto this hearing issue, but there are already safe solutions.”

The bill being backed by the NRA, which last year spent $2,280,000 on lobbying to push the rights and influence of gun owners, was introduced earlier this year by Republican Jeff Duncan, a congressman from South Carolina. His bill, HR367, is termed the Hearing Protection Act and seeks to frame the issue as public health matter, saying that gun owners risk suffering hearing damage without access to silencers.

The measure has received high-profile backing from the President’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr, who paid a visit to a manufacturer of suppressors in Utah, SilencerCo, where he tested its products. The company subsequently posted a 38-minute of Mr Trump Jr, shooting and talking to the company’s CEO, Joshua Waldron. Mr Trump Jr, and his brother, Eric, are currently trustees of the Trump Organisation and oversee the President's financial assets.

“I love your product,” says Mr Trump Jr, a keen hunter, who led an advisory for his father on the US Second Amendment, the part of the constitution which gun rights advocates claim gives them the right to bear arms.

“It’s just a great instrument. There’s nothing bad about it at all. It makes total sense. It’s where we should be going.”

The NRA strongly backed the campaign of Mr Trump, and its endorsement of him in March 2016 was the earliest moment in a presidential cycle that the group had offered such support.

The group did not respond to inquiries. However, earlier this year, at its annual conference in Georgia, the NRA’s Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre, said: “The NRA helped put President Trump into the White House, and aren’t we darned glad we did it?”

He added: “We never lost sight of the fact that unless we got into the fight, Hillary Clinton would have completely destroyed our rights. NRA members all over the country met that challenge, and we won together.”

The silencer or suppressor - experts point out that the equipment reduces the sound of gunshot but does not silence it - was first patented by American engineer Hiram Percy Maxim in the early 1900s. He later went on to use the same technology for car exhaust pipes, or mufflers.

Gun silencers are currently prohibited in a handful of states, while gun owners may use them only after going through a much more rigorous background check process in 37 other states.

Activists claim the move to reduce legislation is also driver by economics. Since Mr Trump was elected, gun sales have reportedly dropped off. The industry is looking for new products and sales, and there is mounting demand for silencers, which carry price tags that can top $1,000.

McClatchy News said that in 2008, about 18,000 silencers were sold in the US. By 2016, that number had risen to 200,000, and experts believe if the legislation passes, that number would soar further.

“This legislation is nothing more than a transparent giveaway to the gun industry to help sell more silencers and increase profits,” said Chelsea Parsons, of the progressive Centre for American Progress.