The Firing Line Forums - View Single Post - Airgun suppressors, firearms, and constructive posession

tgreening · November 20, 2013, 12:07 AM

The key here, with air rifles and their factory installed "moderators" or whatever they choose to call them, is don't poke the sleeping bear. In this case the BATF. If they aren't paying any attention to air rifles, then don't give them any reason to. That's how paintball got in trouble over it.

In their case it was called a Concealer, and it was not a stand alone device. It was a tube of pvc approximately 2" in diameter, 2 delrin spacers with O-rings on the OD, and a small sheet of furnace filter type foam. It's purpose was to "conceal" the cloud of co2 vapor that was a popular power source at the time.

The delrin spacers had an ID of approximately 7/8" and were press fit onto a special made barrel for the various paintball guns of the day. The barrel itself was punched full of holes in the area that would be covered by the pvc tube, which slip fit over the o-rings on the delrin spacers.

If you removed all this from the barrel you had nothing by any reasonable account. A tube, some spacers, and some foam, that's it. It was of no use at all unless installed on a barrel specifically designed to accept it.

The problem was some nimrod sent the entire thing, barrel and all, to the BATF and demanded a ruling. Guess how that turned out.

The moral is, don't force them to make a ruling on something that's not on their radar. If you sent them an entire air rifle that had one of these moderators and asked, you'd might get a negative. Send them just the barrel with the moderator on it and demand to know if it constitutes a silencer you might get an answer you don't like.

In the paintball case the agents involved flat out said they would never have gotten involved at ALL, even though they knew of it's existence, except the afore mentioned nimrod sent one in and made them take an official stance.

They demanded an immediate cease and desist on the manufacturing end of things, with fines and jail time for non-compliance, and that's where it ended. No one went to jail and people that owned one were not tracked down and invaded.

The funny thing is, the paintball barrel full of holes was actually quieter without the concealer attached, and those kinds of barrels are still sold today.

November 20, 2013, 12:07 AM	#19
tgreening Senior Member Join Date: February 7, 2011 Location: NE Ohio Posts: 251	The key here, with air rifles and their factory installed "moderators" or whatever they choose to call them, is don't poke the sleeping bear. In this case the BATF. If they aren't paying any attention to air rifles, then don't give them any reason to. That's how paintball got in trouble over it. In their case it was called a Concealer, and it was not a stand alone device. It was a tube of pvc approximately 2" in diameter, 2 delrin spacers with O-rings on the OD, and a small sheet of furnace filter type foam. It's purpose was to "conceal" the cloud of co2 vapor that was a popular power source at the time. The delrin spacers had an ID of approximately 7/8" and were press fit onto a special made barrel for the various paintball guns of the day. The barrel itself was punched full of holes in the area that would be covered by the pvc tube, which slip fit over the o-rings on the delrin spacers. If you removed all this from the barrel you had nothing by any reasonable account. A tube, some spacers, and some foam, that's it. It was of no use at all unless installed on a barrel specifically designed to accept it. The problem was some nimrod sent the entire thing, barrel and all, to the BATF and demanded a ruling. Guess how that turned out. The moral is, don't force them to make a ruling on something that's not on their radar. If you sent them an entire air rifle that had one of these moderators and asked, you'd might get a negative. Send them just the barrel with the moderator on it and demand to know if it constitutes a silencer you might get an answer you don't like. In the paintball case the agents involved flat out said they would never have gotten involved at ALL, even though they knew of it's existence, except the afore mentioned nimrod sent one in and made them take an official stance. They demanded an immediate cease and desist on the manufacturing end of things, with fines and jail time for non-compliance, and that's where it ended. No one went to jail and people that owned one were not tracked down and invaded. The funny thing is, the paintball barrel full of holes was actually quieter without the concealer attached, and those kinds of barrels are still sold today.