The National Rifle Association is shifting into high gear to shoot down federal and state barriers to buying gun suppressors, believing that the inauguration of President Trump will help to clear the way to easy and low-cost purchases of silencers.
“It’s going to be a new day, it’s a new opportunity to hit the reset button,” said Chris Cox, NRA’s chief lobbyist and the executive director of the NRA Institute for Legislative Action. “This is a fight we can win,” he added during last week’s annual SHOT Show in Las Vegas.
The Hearing Protection Act of 2017 is the vehicle for ending the federal $200 tax and waiting period for purchasing silencers, and it has won the full support of the NRA.
Critics have mocked the name as simplistic, but Trump’s son, Donald Jr., recently said the issue is all about hearing health. “It’s about safety, it’s about hearing protection, it’s a health issue,” he said. “There’s nothing bad about it at all.”
He added that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration would shut down gun ranges because of noise if the Labor Department agency had its way.
While countries in Europe approve the use of suppressors at ranges and while hunting, the gun accessory has been demonized in America, especially in movies where they are often shown as the tools of assassins.
To help lawmakers pushing the Hearing Protection Act, Cox and others at the NRA have stepped up their campaign against that image while making the case that it’s an extension of gun safety.
“Criminals don’t use them other than in movies,” Cox said. He said Hollywood and the media are “intentionally trying to mislead the American people, scare ’em.”
The NRA’s Internet star, lawyer and gun rights activist Colion Noir, is also fighting the issue on his NRATV show.
“They should come with every gun like those cheap gun locks,” he said. “Would you buy a car without a muffler?”
Noir argued that the public has caved into critics and he is urging them to step up and fight for expanded Second Amendment rights.
“I ought to be able to protect my life without going deaf in the process,” he said. “Complacency and apathy will always be the catalyst to the degradation our rights,” he said. “You know who decides what normal is? The people with the loudest voice. So if you want to protect your freedom, take the suppressor off your mouth and put it on your gun.”
Fox anchor Bret Baier planned for Clinton win
When it comes to clear analysis, there are few in the TV business better than Fox’s Bret Baier. But right before the election, he was stuck.
He had finished writing his new book about former President Dwight D. Eisenhower and the transition to John F. Kennedy and wanted a final chapter to tie in former President Obama’s parallel effort with his successor.
The problem: His deadline for “Three Days In January” was before the fall election. So he wrote two endings. And like practically everybody in the country, he bet on Democrat Hillary Clinton to win.
“So I wrote two endings,” he said. “I wrote an ending that Hillary Clinton won. This is the one I spent most time on, and the lessons that Hillary Clinton could learn from Eisenhower. And I really crafted it, tried to make it perfect.”
And, he said, “I spent time, but not as much time, on Donald Trump wins.” In it he wrote of the similarities between the relatively inexperienced Kennedy and first-time office winner Trump.
One reason for his skepticism was that he wrote it right after the leak of the tape of Trump and TV gossip reporter Billy Bush talking lewdly about women.
“I’m thinking this is going to be really good fiction at that moment,” he said.
But almost exactly one month later, he said, “As I announce on election night at 2:30 in the morning that Pennsylvania has gone for Donald Trump and he will be the 45th president of the United States, I’m thinking, ‘That chapter really works.'”
Josh Earnest warns Spicer on Trump tweets
It worked for him on the campaign trail and during his transition, but President Trump needs help to cure his Twitter addiction, according to former President Obama’s spokesman.
In a bit of advice for Sean Spicer, his replacement, former White House spokesman Josh Earnest said if Trump continues to tweet it’s going to cause trouble.
“One of the things that will be challenging is that it is apparent that [Trump] often sends tweets without consulting his team. And that has the potential to put Mr. Spicer in a difficult situation if the tweets … are not effectively coordinated with the public comments of his spokesperson,” Earnest said.
“That kind of dissonance, if you will, is something that can be overcome in the context of a political campaign, but the consequences are much higher when you are talking about a range of sensitive policy issues including some policies that have a direct bearing on our national security,” he added.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]
