Looking back at 2025

You can look at this column as the first of the new year or the last of the current year. I want to comment on some things that have changed in this country over the past year under the current Republican administration.

If you are a gun owner, you are familiar with the previous administration’s actions in their “war on guns.” The left wing did everything they could to restrict or outlaw ownership of various types of firearms based on action type or caliber or features built on or in the mechanisms of the firearms themselves. The Left apparently believes that the gun itself is responsible for crime and not the person who is using the firearm.

There has been a joke circulating on social media about how a guy took his unloaded shotgun and a handful of shells and put them out on his front porch for the day. When he checked on the items around dinner time, everything was unmoved and right where he put it. The mail carrier had come and gone, the package delivery service had left a box on the porch, and all the neighborhood kids going home from school had passed by on the sidewalk without incident. How could that be if the gun was responsible for harm to people? It sounds silly, but some folks believe the gun is the problem, not the illegal use of the gun.

The Alaska Legislature finally figured that out regarding alcohol, motor vehicles, and drunk drivers a few years ago, but that’s a story for another day.

The Great Big Beautiful Bill that Congress passed earlier this year, among many other things, has a provision which removes the $200 one-time, nonrefundable tax when a gun owner applies for “permission” to buy a suppressor (so-called silencer) under requirements of the 1938 National Firearms Act (NFA). After Jan. 1, 2026, the tax is no longer required if a person wants to buy a suppressor. All the other requirements of fingerprinting, photos, background checks, etc., still apply but the tax is gone. Work is ongoing to get suppressors totally removed from NFA regulation altogether, but as of now, the paperwork requirements are still in place.

That is a significant step in getting “common sense” gun regulations in place. A little history here. Several years ago, I met some foreign visitors touring Alaska. They were all former Swiss military. In talking with them about firearms laws in the respective countries, they were amazed that we Americans were allowed to own semi-automatic firearms. Apparently, they were either not allowed, or ownership was so tightly controlled that, for all practical purposes, ownership was not allowed.

The conversation drifted to suppressors, and they said a person could walk into a store in Switzerland and buy a suppressor over the counter with no government regulation required. Suppressors there were viewed as safety equipment to protect hearing, and to reduce or eliminate sound disturbances for people in the area when shooting was ongoing. I shook my head when they talked about semi-auto action ownership and they shook theirs when I explained our government regulation of suppressors.

Suppressors have started to become popular over the last several years in this country because they do significantly reduce the sound of gunshots. People are using them for hearing protection when hunting, where ear plugs or earmuffs could interfere with the hunting activity. And, in some cases, folks use them to reduce noise for their neighbors – exactly what the intended purpose of the item is.

However, there are many people, like me, who couldn’t afford the extra $200 tax on top of the price of an already expensive firearms accessory. The big obstacle for gunowners applying to buy a suppressor has always been the $200 tax cost. They might not like the paperwork requirements but if they’re legal gun owners, the paperwork is a time drain but not a problem.

Most gun industry “insiders” expect the number of suppressor buying applications will pick up significantly after the tax goes away, which will probably delay government processing of these applications to some extent. I don’t plan to buy a suppressor anytime soon because, for one thing, I only own one firearm with a threaded barrel where a suppressor could be mounted.

My New Years resolutions are, briefly: get back in better physical shape, do more shooting, get my small trailer set up for towing my inflatable raft, do more surf fishing, and do more fishing, period! Have a Happy New Year!