Letters to the Editor: With silencer regulations, public safety needs to come before the gun industry

To the editor: Oh, please. Republican legislators are whining about the accessibility of firearm silencers under the guise of hearing protection (“GOP tax bill would ease regulations on gun silencers and some rifles and shotguns,” June 23). Rather than using personal ear protection when shooting, they would prefer more silencers in our communities, thereby putting their fellow citizens at risk of being injured or killed during a shooting because they didn’t hear gunfire or were unable to discern the direction from which it was coming.

It is galling that Georgia Rep. Andrew Clyde, the owner of two gun stores, is shilling for the gun industry to reduce silencer regulation. Making silencers more accessible would increase sales and line his pockets. Legislators should concern themselves with public safety rather than doing the bidding of the gun industry.

Firearms are the leading cause of death of American children and teens. Can’t Republicans think of anything productive they might do to help solve that problem?

Loren Lieb, Northridge

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To the editor: So Republicans in Congress want potential mass shooters, school shooters and presidential assassins to have ready access to silencers and sawed-off shotguns without being subject to a background check or paying a tax.

Tell me this: How is a good guy with a gun supposed to stop a bad guy with a gun if he doesn’t know where the shots are coming from?

If only Senate Republicans had thought to pass similar legislation back in 2022 before 19 elementary school kids and two teachers were slaughtered in Uvalde, Texas. Instead of being ridiculed for failing to immediately confront the 18-year-old school shooter, the Uvalde police and Texas Rangers could have said, “Well, we didn’t go in because we didn’t know the whereabouts of the shooter.”

Patricia Holloway, San Clemente