A proposal to end the ban on recreational shooters using gun silencers is set to go before Victorian Parliament.

The Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party is introducing a private members' bill which would make it legal for all licensed shooters to use silencers.

Silencers, or suppressors as they are also known, reduce gunshot noise and are strictly controlled throughout Australia.

Usually only specialists such as professional hunters and veterinarians are granted permits to use them.

Jeff Bourman, Victorian Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party MP wants silencers made more widely available to licenced shooters. ( ABC News: Rachel Carbonell )

Ears and deers

Victorian MP, Jeff Bourman, said he was introducing the bill to protect the hearing of shooters.

"There's a little bit of self-interest in this," Mr Bourman said.

"I've got a lot of hearing damage to one of my ears when someone fired a gun next to it years ago.

"That would have been — or most likely — prevented with a suppressor."

However Mr Bourman said silencers were also useful for hunters wanting to shoot more than one animal.

"If you shoot at one deer the noise from a suitable firearm is quite astronomical and travels for miles and miles," he said.

"That one deer is basically what you get … [it] scares all the other ones away."

Suppressing for stock

Mr Bourman said a silencer would reduce an extremely loud noise to "something that is loud, but won't travel as far", which could have benefits for farmers.

"If you're shooting around stock … you'll find that the noise is quite upsetting to them. Now, a suppressor takes out that bite," Mr Bourman said.

However not all farmers supported the proposal.

Farmer Leonard Vallance, head of Victorian Farmers Federation Livestock group. ( Supplied )

Sheep, cattle and grain farmer, Leonard Vallance, is the head of the Victorian Farmers Federation (VFF) livestock group and is also a licensed firearm user.

He said that while most shooters do the right thing, illegal shooting on rural properties was a problem and he did not want that group having access to silencers.

"They shoot stuff that they shouldn't shoot, they leave gates open, they leave rubbish around the property, and they're generally a nuisance," Mr Vallance said.

"They are a safety hazard to the farmer, livestock and the wider community."

Mr Vallance said if more people could legally use silencers there would be other safety risks as well.

"My concern would be that if the firearms were stolen with silencers fitted to them they could then enter into the illegal crime market and that would be a problem for everyone," he said.

"In the last 12 months, two of my neighbours have had their gun safes broken into on their properties and they were locked away properly, bolted down and secured, and they still had their firearms stolen out of their gun safes."

Many deer hunters would like to be allowed to use gun silencers so they can shoot more animals more easily. ( Supplied: Parks Victoria )

Warning signal

Gun control advocates say being able to clearly hear where shooting was happening was an important public safety issue.

Lesley Podesta is the chief executive of the Alannah and Madeline Foundation, which was established in memory of two young children killed in Tasmania's Port Arthur massacre in 1996.

"All of us use sounds as a warning signal," Ms Podesta said.

"Often you cross railway lines and you can look, but you don't always see a train because they're coming around a corner, but you can hear a train and that's a really important part of keeping yourself safe.

"Guns are the same; you need to be able to hear them. It helps you know what's going on, what direction, how far away they are.

"It's an important part of being able to be responsible about the use of firearms in places where people exist."

Mr Vallance agreed, and said an unmuffled gunshot could serve as a warning.

"Knowing that someone is shooting in the vicinity of where you are is a huge advantage for your own personal safety," he said.

"Quite often, in dense bush, there may well be someone shooting close by to you and they might not be aware that you are actually camping in that area or enjoying the great outdoors."

Silence is relative

Mr Bourman said it was a misconception that suppressors made guns silent.

"They don't make 99.9 per cent of guns silent," he said.

"The best supersonic cartridge that gets suppressed still sounds like a normal .22 rimfire that is unsuppressed, which is still quite loud and still quite clearly a gunshot."

But silencers not only muffled the sound of a firearm, they could also disguise the direction of the shots fired.

Mr Vallance said knowing where the shooting was coming from was very important.

"I'm aware that it's very difficult to get a reading on where the firearm was coming from when they're shooting because it [a silencer] changes the noise," said Mr Valance.

"If you're a landowner and you have an illegal shooter on your property it would be very difficult to work out where they actually were located."

Mr Vallance said there was some division among farmers on the issue, but he thought the majority supported the current regulations on silencers.

For and against

The private members bill follows a parliamentary e-petition, which attracted a record almost 6,000 signatures. The Sporting Shooters Association and the Australian Deer Association also support the bill.

However, the Victorian Labor Government and Victoria Police both say they supported the current regulatory approach to silencers. The state opposition also said it would oppose the bill.

Gun Control Australia director Sam Lee. ( Supplied: Sam Lee )

But Gun Control Australia says Mr Bourman's bill was part of a wider national trend, with other states and territories also under pressure from the gun lobby to weaken laws governing silencers.

Spokeswoman Sam Lee said Tasmania's government had flagged changes to silencer laws, and New South Wales and the ACT had also made changes.

"Once one state is allowed to deplete its laws and there are successes for the gun lobby in a particular state, other states will follow," she said.

'Pushing the boundaries'

Ms Lee said it was a trend that threatened to undermine Australia's national gun control laws, and that the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party were a part of this move by the gun lobby.

"They represent a certain constituency of gun lobby or gun owners who are wanting to push the boundaries of the laws," she said.

"The majority of gun owners comply with the laws without any complaints and continue to do so and will continue to support issues around public safety and respect the limits of the laws."