The SHUSH Act (Silencers Help Us Save Hearing Act) is a bill that would substantially change how firearm silencers (often called suppressors) are treated under federal law. Its core goal is to reclassify silencers as firearm accessories rather than as firearms, and to remove federal regulation of silencers as firearms. It would also preempt state laws that try to tax, register, or otherwise regulate silencers, and it would exempt silencers from Consumer Product Safety Commission oversight. At the same time, the bill contains provisions about how silencers interact with some existing laws (notably NFA registration and a retroactive transfer tax rule) and would adjust certain penalties and law-enforcement provisions to reflect the intended reclassification. What this could mean in practice is that silencers would face far less federal regulatory oversight, fewer federal restrictions on possession or transfer (subject to a few transitional provisions), and no CPSC safety regime. However, there are also retroactive elements (a two-year look-back for transfers) and grandfathering language around NFA registration, which could produce a complex mix of new rules and older-regulation re-application in some cases.
Key Points
- 1Reclassification of silencers
- 2- The bill amends the Internal Revenue Code to strike “any silencer” from the list of items treated as firearms and to keep silencers treated as firearm accessories instead. This reduces federal firearm regulatory status for silencers.
- 3Federal regulation and penalties
- 4- Section 5 would remove silencers and mufflers from being federally regulated as firearms in 18 U.S.C. §§ 921, 924, and related provisions, including penalties and certain carrying rules for law enforcement officers. In effect, silencers would no longer be regulated as firearms under those statutes.
- 5NFA and registration
- 6- The bill adds a provision allowing a person acquiring or possessing a firearm silencer to be treated as meeting the National Firearms Act registration/licensing requirements “as in effect on the day before” enactment. This creates a grandfathering-like effect for silencer-related NFA requirements as they stood pre-enactment, even as silencers are moved out of the regular firearm category.
- 7State preemption
- 8- States or political subdivisions would be prohibited from imposing taxes, marking, recordkeeping, or registration requirements on firearm silencers for interstate or foreign commerce. In short, federal action would prevent states from imposing such silencer-specific requirements.
- 9Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) exemption
- 10- Silencers would be explicitly excluded from federal CPSC safety regulation by adding silencers to the CPSA exclusion list. This removes silencers from CPSC product-safety oversight.
- 11Effective dates and retroactivity
- 12- Most provisions take effect upon enactment. However, the transfer tax changes apply to transfers occurring after a date that is two years before the enactment date, creating a retroactive window for certain transfers.