Suppression technology question:

[xanderphillips]

I've just been pondering something and have not seen a good explanation anywhere online that covers this: I understand that there are taxes, regulations, paperwork, etc...for purchasing/using/picking your nose with/etc... a suppressor for a firearm here in the USA. What I've not found is a good basis for having to meet all those requirements for a firearm that due to its design and manufacturing is inherently 'suppressed', i.e. not by having something bolted onto it. Some firearms are just naturally 'louder' to shoot than others, and there are some basic design parameters that when followed would cause a firearm to be more or less noisy. Is there a documented legal requirement for firearms that are inherently quiet to be classified as using a 'suppressor' even when there isn't one 'attached' to the weapon? At what point does 'good design' become a 'suppressor'? Admittedly I've not dug too deeply into research, but it seems like there's some 'fuzzy math' going on here...

Xanderphillips

 

[Kirk Freeman]

Are you requesting the legal definition of a suppressor?

 

[DownByTheTracks]

Per the ATF FAQ:

"The terms “firearm silencer” and “firearm muffler” mean any device for silencing, muffling, or diminishing the report of a portable firearm, including any combination of parts, designed or redesigned, and intended for use in assembling or fabricating a firearm silencer or firearm muffler, and any part intended only for use in such assembly or fabrication."

 

[vedearduff]

A firearm could be designed that would have little inhearant report.

To do this, you would need to incorporate some method to moderate the expanding gasses that drive the bullet. How ever you moderate these gasses, the BATFE will almost certainly consider that portion to be a suppressor.

Whether bolted on, or designed in and not useable on another firearm, it will still be considered to be a suppressor and treated as such by the BATFE.

 

[Valvestate]

You could always make it serve another purpose and it just happens to make it more quiet :P

 

[JettaKnight]

You could always make it serve another purpose and it just happens to make it more quiet :P

'Looking cool' doesn't count!

 

[Light]

'Looking cool' doesn't count!

Heat Dissipation maybe?

Interesting topic OP.