Massachusetts lawmakers to weigh legalizing suppressors

By Chris Eger

Suppressor-maker YHM is based in Massachusetts but the state doesn’t allow those in the state to legally own the devices. (Photo: YHM)
Legislation to lift the ban on the civilian use and ownership of suppressors in the Commonwealth is set to be heard Thursday by the Massachusetts Joint Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security.
The bipartisan measures, state Sen. Donald Humason’s S. 1317, and, Sen. Michael Moore’s S. 1340, would allow those able to possess a firearm free to own a suppressor as long as it was in compliance with federal law. Massachusetts is one of just eight states that restrict the devices to licensed manufacturers and law enforcement only.
“It’s more of a muffling, not a silencing,” Moore, a Millbury Democrat, told the Worcester Telegram. “Sportsmen and people living next to firing ranges and sportsmen’s clubs will benefit … Nothing will silence the noise, but this will drastically reduce the noise that abutters of these two facilities will have to hear.”
The language of the bills lifts the Massachusetts ban on silencers, except for their use in the commission of a crime, or for those possessing or selling controlled substances.
While area gun control groups to include Stop Handgun Violence and the Massachusetts

Source: Guns.com