Many gun owners are excited by the Hearing Protection Act bill. The anticipation of being able to spend a day at the range without hearing protection just sounds like a joy, especially if you don’t have to jump through NFA hoops in order to make it happens.

Now, the measure has been folded into another bill called Sportsmen Heritage and Recreational Enhancement or SHARE Act.

The bipartisan measure, the Sportsmen Heritage and Recreational Enhancement or SHARE Act, blends popular initiatives to safeguard and expand hunting and fishing rights and practices across public land with one to drop suppressors from National Firearms Act regulation. South Carolina Republican U.S. Rep. Jeff Duncan, the sponsor of the bill, has been working with Democrats within the Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus to try and garner support from across the aisle. “It concerns me enough that we’ve talked to them about it,” Duncan said. “At the end of the day, I hope they will embrace it.” Going beyond the Hearing Protection Act, which would remove silencers and suppressors from NFA requirements that include a $200 tax stamp, the SHARE Act would mandate the more than 1.3 million already registered be deleted from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ records within 365 days of the bill becoming law. Further, while states would not be required to allow their sale or possession, they would be barred from establishing their own potentially prohibitive taxes or registration requirements on legal devices. In the end, suppressors would be treated as firearms – which would allow them to be transferred through any regular federal firearms license holders to anyone not prohibited from possessing them after the buyer passes an FBI instant background check.

I’d rather suppressors be treated as any other accessories, but this is still a positive move forward for gun rights. Of course, that’s probably why the usual suspects are whining about it already. They can’t grasp that suppressors do nothing except make guns quieter. It’s a safety device, for crying out loud. In fact, in their liberal Utopia of Europe, suppressors are required for shooting in some countries. It’s only polite, after all.

In addition, anyone who purchased their suppressors after October 22, 2015, will reportedly get a refund on their $200 tax stamp, which is bound to go over well with those folks. Not so much for the guys who got theirs on October 21st of that year, though.

The bill will also open up over 11.7 million acres controlled by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for concealed carry and other purposes.

Frankly, purging records of who owns what and the ability to purchase suppressors at my local gun shop is more than enough to make this bill a win. However, many of the pro-hunting provisions may give political cover to some rural Democrats to vote for the bill. They can then claim they were voting for the hunting provisions to keep their anti-gun masters within the party somewhat mollified while still giving their constituents what they want.

This is another piece of legislation that needs to be moved on and moved on quickly. Let’s make this happen so we can be sure to make some headway on gaining back our Second Amendment rights that lawmakers have slowly eroded through the years.