Hearing Protection Act language added to SHARE Act
The Outdoor Wire reports the House Committee on Natural Resources will conduct a hearing this morning (June 14) in which the Federal Lands Subcommittee will hear a discussion draft of the Sportsmen’s Heritage and Recreational Enhancement (SHARE) Act. The SHARE Act, supported by Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus Co-Chairs Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC), and Rep. Gene Green (D-TX), is a comprehensive package that covers a wide range of hunting, fishing, and outdoor related issues. Included in the legislation is Title XVII, a strengthened version of the Hearing Protection Act. “We know for a fact that exposure to noise from recreational firearms is one of the leading causes of hearing loss,” said Knox Williams, President and Executive Director of the American Suppressor Association.
Additions to SHARE Act
The organization has incorporated amendments into the current draft of the SHARE Act, which include: • Removing suppressors from the National Firearms Act, subjecting them to the same instant NICS background check as long guns, and issuing a refundable tax credit to anyone who has purchased a suppressor since the HPA’s original date of introduction • Ensuring suppressors remain legal in all 42 states where currently legal, after suppressors get removed from the National Firearms Act • Preempting states from levying taxes or registration requirements on suppressors. However, this will not make suppressors legal in any state where state law currently prohibits them • Granting the ATF 365 days to destroy all suppressor related records from the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record (NFRTR) • Developing a “keystone part” definition, and requiring that such keystone part gets serialized on every suppressor. This will ensure that individual suppressor parts, like pistons and endcaps, will not require serialization • Imposing a 10 percent Pittman-Robertson excise tax on the manufacture of each new suppressor, a tax currently imposed on all Title I firearms
