Tuesday, April 4, 2017

Coming Soon To A Gun Shop Near You

I can't see the traditional style of handguns and rifles completely disappearing, but fairly shortly I expect that most rifles will look a lot like this
or this
and semi-auto pistols will be some variant of this
with differing sizes of the block in front, but no change in length. This would likely be the result of passage of the Hearing Protection Act which would treat a loose suppressor the same as a single firearm. Given this, incorporating the suppressor into the gun would add nothing to the complexity of the purchase while selling a significant reduction in ear-damaging noise to the gun-buying public.With mass production, the cost delta should be minimal.

2 comments:

Sailorcurt said...

I foresee prices for suppressors dropping significantly anyway. They aren't technically difficult or expensive to make...a lot of the costs involved right now stem from their classification making the licensing costs exorbitant for manufacturers and depressing demand.

If the hearing protection act passes (not guaranteed considering the filibuster), the costs should be reduced significantly and the demand will go way up.

I expect that integral suppressors will become very popular but stand alone units will become relatively inexpensive within a couple of years too.

I know, I'd like to have an AR barrel with an integral suppressor to keep the barrel length legal while still providing the suppression, but my handguns I'd be happy with threaded barrels and screw on suppressors. The integral units would be too bulky for concealed carry anyway...although a full sized .45 with an integral suppressor would be great for open carry.

Billll said...

The topic came up at an IDPA match where it was observed that adding a suppressor to any pistol would make it too large to qualify for IDPA use, not to mention a rather clumsy draw from a holster. The integrally suppressed models are much closer to qualifying size wise and I can see the governing bodies adjusting the size limits to accommodate the suppressors.