Washington Freed the Silencer, Michigan Hasn't Caught Up

The feds stopped enforcing the paperwork on Oct. 9, but Michigan's silencer law still depends on it.

A silencer doesn't make a rifle quiet like it does in the movies. It takes the muzzle blast down far enough that one shot is less likely to do permanent damage.

But most voter’s experience knowledge of silencers come from movies, so what can you expect? Most see a dangerous weapon used by contract killers and assassins, I see something that will help me not be stone-deaf in my 60s.

Most hunters want one for their health and it's why the Natural Resources Commission voted 4-1 in February 2016 to repeal Michigan's ban on hunting with one. We were the 38th state to allow it.

The catch was always the federal process. You paid a $200 tax stamp, sent in fingerprints and forms, and waited months for the ATF to approve a hunk of baffles you'd already paid for. Congress cut that tax to zero on Jan. 1. In August, a federal judge in Texas ruled that once the tax was gone, the registration requirement couldn't stand on Congress's taxing power.

On Oct. 9, the Justice Department declined to appeal, and the ATF announced it will no longer enforce registration and approval for silencers. You still go through a dealer, fill out the same form, and pass the same background check as any rifle.

That's why my feed filled up with posts saying any hunter can now put a can on his rifle. In Michigan, that isn't settled yet.

Michigan's law, MCL 750.224, makes owning a silencer a felony punishable by up to five years. The exception is for people "licensed or approved" by the ATF. In 2011, Attorney General Bill Schuette's Opinion 7260 read that exception to mean federal approval through the registration process. The legal route for Michigan owners has run through Washington's paperwork ever since.

Even though Washington stopped enforcing that paperwork, Michigan's law still points to it.

The ATF says it can't tell anyone whether an unregistered silencer counts as legal under a state law written that way. It also calls the new policy enforcement discretion, not repeal, and says enforcement could come back if the court ruling is overturned or the policy is rescinded.

Michigan gun shops are telling customers the same thing: Don't assume the federal change cleared state law.

All this leaves hunters in an odd spot.

The Natural Resources Commission said 10 years ago that a suppressed rifle belongs in Michigan's deer woods. Congress and the courts have now taken most of the federal hassle out of buying one. The last thing in the way is one sentence in a state statute written around a federal process that is no longer enforced.

Lansing can fix it. But until it does, I'm still waiting to buy one.