U.S.A. -(Ammoland.com)- I have always wanted a .30 caliber suppressor for my .300blk pistol that I affectionately call “Black Betty.” I have multiple .300blk firearms, but this one was the first I built, so it has a special place in my heart. The Blackout and Whisper (which came first as a wildcat round) are made to be suppressed. I am not sure why I never picked up a suppressor for my firearms chambered in .300blk.
That isn’t to say that I don’t have suppressors. I have multiple suppressors for my 5.56, .22 LR, and 9mm firearms. In fact, I have a Yankee Hill Machine 9mm silencer on my home defense CZ Scorpion equipped with an SB Tactical brace. If I must use my gun to defend my home or my family, I don’t want to blow out my eardrums while doing so.
That fact is the primary reason I choose to use suppressors on my guns. Even with religious use of ear protection, I still developed tinnitus over my many years of shooting guns. I started shooting suppressed to prevent further ear damage. A suppressor doesn’t make a gun silent as Hollywood wants you to believe. The inventor of the suppressor himself created that myth. Hiram Maxim called his invention a “silencer.” It was called that for marketing purposes. He modeled it after a muffler on engines
Around the same time, I was looking to buy a new suppressor; I got to speak to Dave Matheny.
Dave is the owner of Silencer Shop. Silencer Shop sells most suppressors in the country. He suggested I use his kiosk system, and I was intrigued because I am also a tech guy. When Silencer Shop agreed to pick up the cost of the suppressor, I was sold! I finally decided to bite the bullet and pick up a Dead Air Nomad-30 to fill the hole in my .30 caliber suppressor needs.
Dave saw how confusing it was to fill out the NFA paperwork and jump through all the hoops to buy a suppressor, and he wanted to fix it. So, he developed the Silencer Shop Kiosk system. The kiosk is a one-stop-shop for everything you need to do to buy a silencer. All requirements are taken care of through the kiosk and the Silencer Shop app. I was excited to see if it was as easy to use as Dave claimed.
I let Silencer Shop know the suppressor I wanted, and they took care of it. Usually, this would be purchased from their website. I did buy my tax stamp directly from the website, and that was simple. Once I logged into the app, it showed me how many tax stamps are available to use. In my case, it was one.
When you buy your suppressor, Silencer Shop will send you a QR code via email.
When I got to the gun store, the first thing I did was hold the QR code emailed to me up to the kiosk scanner and let it scan it. This step will start the process if you are a first-time user of the Silencer Shop Kiosk.
The first step in the process is the fingerprinting step. Gone are the days of going to the local Sheriff’s department to get fingerprinted. The kiosk will take digital fingerprints right there on the spot. It walked me through rolling each finger and stored each print. The kiosk will let me know if the fingerprint was not good enough to use and made me do it again. It took a couple of tries for a couple of fingers, but it took the same amount of attempts at the Sheriff’s Department. Maybe I just have bad prints. In the end, it asked me to sign it digitally with my finger. It was just as accurate as of the ones at my local Sheriff’s department.
The second thing it asked me was if I was buying the suppressor as a trust, an individual, or a corporation. Silencer Shop sells something called a “Single Shot Trust.” I went with that. There are advantages to each way you can file your paperwork, so I suggest researching each way before making your decision.
The kiosk walked me through the questions in small bite-size segments.
It is easy to mess up a question when filling it out on paper. The kiosk made filling out the questions relatively simple. They are the same questions, but somehow doing it this way made me feel less likely to mess something up.
After I finished filling in all the information (same information found on a 4473), I moved on to the next step. The kiosk displayed two QR codes. One was for downloading the app from the Google Play Store, and the other was for downloading the app from the Apple Store. Since I have an Android phone, I scanned the QR code that took me to the Google Play Store. You can download this app before going to the gun shop. I just happened not to do it so I would get the whole experience.
Once I downloaded the app and logged in, I had to take my picture for the process to be complete. At the bottom of the app, there is a tab called “picture.” I clicked that tab, and it asked for permission to use my camera, which I agreed to let it do. The gun shop, Herndon Arms, had a white background for me to use, and the guy working behind the counter helped me take the picture.
I received a Docusign document sent to me for my electronic signature via email. I submitted my signature and that was that. That part of the process took me less than a minute.
That was it. All my paperwork was complete, and the suppressor was ordered.
The process is a lot faster than it used to be, and it saved me the time and energy of running around to different places just to find out I forgot to do something. The Silencer Shop Kiosk really simplifies the process as well speeds it up.
Now all I have to do is wait forever to get something I should be able to order on Amazon Prime and have it shipped to my house with next day free shipping.
About John Crump
John is a NRA instructor and a constitutional activist. John has written about firearms, interviewed people of all walks of life, and on the Constitution. John lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and sons and can be followed on Twitter at @crumpyss, or at www.crumpy.com.
Will (“TEX”) – 11/17/21 “Silencer Shop makes the entire process of purchasing a suppressor very simple. I’ve bought three through them. In Texas,that process is about to get a lot easier and less expensive too.” Replay to Will (“TEX”): Your prior prediction on the Texas suppressor law didn’t materialize. I haven’t heard of any government employees (such as the governor, legislators, attorney general, sheriffs, judges, etc.) purchasing a made-in-Texas suppressor without going through the federal process. Any thoughts on when the process will get easier and less expensive in Texas? Silencer Shop has indicated the Texas law undermines federal… Read more »
Thanks Mr. Crump. You convinced me. I read the interview here recently with Dave Matheny and actually looked at his kiosk at East Bay Guns in Elma, Washington. I wasn’t sure which weapon I was going to can first until last week when I bought one of the Let’s Go Brandon lowers to build into a 300 Blackout AR Pistol. This article has me giddy as a school boy at his first dance to get this build finished!
You need to clarify that you should approach a gun store clerk before using the kiosk in their shop. If you are not having your suppressor processed through their store, and are just showing up to use the kiosk with the suppressor transfer being processed somewhere else, the store with the kiosk is authorized by Silencer Shop to charge a fee to use the kiosk in their store. Anything less is theft of store services.