How can you educate your elected officials about suppressors? Here's are some things to say:

Banning suppressors would put the health and safety of law-abiding Virginians at risk while doing nothing to target dangerous criminals.

Suppressors do not silence the sound of a firearm. On average they reduce the sound of a gunshot by 20 – 35 decibels (dB), roughly the same sound reduction as earplugs or earmuffs.

Suppressors are hearing protection devices. Used in conjunction with earplugs or earmuffs they form a comprehensive hearing protection system that protects users better than a single device.

Of the more than 1,650,000 legally obtained suppressors in circulation in the US, over 50,000 are possessed in Virginia.

Thousands of hunters and recreational gun owners in the state use suppressors to protect themselves from preventable hearing damage.

Even the quietest suppressed gunshots are as loud or louder than a jackhammer striking concrete.

Since 1934, suppressors have been regulated as a firearm by the US government. Firearm ownership is an individually protected right under the Second Amendment.

Suppressors are among the most heavily regulated firearms in the country. To purchase one in Virginia, buyers must send in an application including fingerprints and passport photos to ATF, pay a $200 transfer tax, notify their Chief Law Enforcement Officer (CLEO), pass an FBI NICS background check, and wait an indeterminate amount of time for ATF to process the application. As of June 2019, average wait times range between 5 to 18 months.

Montana Governor and Democratic Presidential candidate Steve Bullock, in a 2015 letter to the Montana legislature, said, “Suppressors mitigate the sound of a shot, but do not silence it. The use of suppressors for hunting, when hunters cannot wear ear protection because they need to be aware of their surroundings, can help protect against hearing loss. This is especially true for our younger hunters.”