Bill Amendment Limits Hunting with Silencers - KGWN –Cheyenne, WY– Scottsbluff, NE News,Weather, Sports

Bill Amendment Limits Hunting with Silencers

Senate File 132 is a bill that would make it legal to use silencers while hunting, but organizations like the American Silencer Association are disappointed that the bill has been amended to not include big game animals.

They believe that amendment will cause problems for hunters who will big licenses who hunt big game and small game animals together. Lobbyists say they will push to strip it away from the bill in the days to come.

"There is no difference in hunting any species with a rifle that has a sound suppressor on it. All it does is reduce the amount of sound that your ears hear to a level that doesn't hurt them. Even a suppressed rifle has the sound signature equivalent to a chainsaw," said Todd Rathner a lobbyist for the American Silencer Association.

Rathner is also a member of the NRA's Board of Directors, so we talked to him about the NRA's stance on expanding background checks. Officials have been working to build support against the proposal.

Gun control proponents want to close the so-called "gun show loophole," which allows many private purchases to avoid background checks, but the NRA is pushing back.

"The only way you can do universal background checks is by having complete universal registration. They want universal registration of all firearms. They want universal registration of every firearms owner and they want to know when I transfer a gun to another private individual or a grandfather gives a firearm to a grandchild. We don't find that acceptable. Registration in every single case has always led to one thing and that is confiscation," Rathner said.