President Donald Trump said he’ll "seriously look" at banning gun silencers after last week’s mass shooting in Virginia.
“Well, I’d like to think about it," Trump said in an interview with Piers Morgan on ITV’s Good Morning Britain. “I’m going to seriously look at it."
While Trump said he didn’t "love" the idea of a ban, he also was unhappy to see the frequency and severity of mass shootings in the U.S.
Trump’s comments represent a potential crack in Republican opposition to stronger gun control measures.
They follow a shooting last week at a municipal center in Virginia Beach, Virginia, in which a gunman killed 12 people. Police recovered a high-capacity magazine and a silencer mechanism from the scene.
Virginia’s Democratic governor, Ralph Northam, said Tuesday he will summon lawmakers back to the state Capitol to consider a package of gun-control legislation. Republicans control the state’s legislature. Northam’s proposals include a ban on silencers and high-capacity magazines.
The Trump administration earlier this year banned bump stocks, devices that let a semi-automatic weapon fire like a machine gun.
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[–] 19051578? ago
Silencer is an incorrect term for them, because they don't silence gunfire. They still make a substantial amount of noise, and depending on the gun and round, they're still hearing unsafe with one on. They're called suppressors, and they're regulated by the NFA. Every suppressor needs to be registered with the ATF and you have to go through a rigamaroo to own one. The thing that shits me is that they are not at all how hollywood portrays them, like that John Wick scene, gunfire doesn't disappear with a suppressor. Their purpose, if I recall, was to make gunfire hearing-safe when indoors for Police/Military activity and shit. They don't exist for such a sinister reason as making it easy to kill someone without anyone hearing, but rather that you can use firearms without going deaf.