Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Why does a SWAT force need Silencers on their M16's?

Nope. Stuff you can put on a weapon is about the ONLY thing you can't buy with Fed Grant funds.

WTF, too much koolaid? If Obama hasn't made best work of destruction of the US, I damn sure don't know who has. Of course the views coming out of Kalifornia, are just like those of Europe( that must seem normal to Kevin Gibson also for some reason). IE they've been blindfolded so long they no longer realize what freedom is and can mean. But are addicted to a nanny state sucking hind teat

Or a few of them. It get's loud until the ringing takes over.

yeah, they're more into armored cars and diversity coordinators than stuff that goes bang

Not to be argumentative or anything, but hearing loss is not generally considered disabling.

How do you figure?

Typical non-gun person's attempt to write for the press release. Suppressors are devices that do just that: suppress blast and muzzle flash. Recoil is obviously not a major concern with 5.56mm rounds out of an 8-pound rifle.

Suppressors are a virtual necessity for SWAT because so much of their/our shooting is done indoors... both training and ops. If you have never been in an enclosed room when two or three guys let off unsuppressed 3-round bursts simultaneously, you ought to get some buddies together and try it sometime. Trust me, even with plugs and muffs, your ears will be ringing for several hours thereafter.

Suppressors are simply good for SWAT cops' occupational health... OSHA's gonna be mandating them soon, I hear, it's buried in the back pages of the Obamacare bill right there with the Cloaking Devices for the black helicopters being built for the Healthcare Police...

Not to be argumentative, but that is total bullsh!t. Check with the VA or OSHA about hearing loss disability before you enture your uninformed opinion next time.

If the loss is less than full, while a medical condition, there's not much that would prevent one from doing.

Doc, you may have a grasp of the medical issues, but not the legal issues.

I don't need to know about the legal issues to know that I have several patients with partial or total hearing loss who receive disability pensions from the VA and LEA's for hearing loss.

Interesting theory.

What's more interesting is that the entire medical community, the VA, OSHA, and most employers out there would disagree.

Not to mention the millions that are in fact disabled by partial hearing loss.

What's the legal definition of a disability?

OT, and tedious, but it depends on what standard is being applied. There's a million of them. There are millions of people with compromised hearing who are gainfully employed.

Was in Hong Kong years ago. Cops there where highly respected by the community and carried no weapons at all except a billy. Citizens had knives, clubs, spears maybe, bricks and rocks and chitt. Somehow it worked out.

Not really interested in emulating the Hong Kong model myself but the ongoing morphing of police power into military assault capability is not my cup of tea either. Having a little bit of a problem seeing the need for mufflers on SWAT weapons....but maybe it makes their twig 'n berries look bigger. Just a guess.

And there are millions of people missing arms and legs and eyes and with severe disfigurement who are gainfully employed, and they're receiving disability pensions too.

You asserted that hearing loss was not "generally considered to be disabling". You said nothing about "total disability", which I infer now is what you meant, and if that was in fact your point, I wouldn't argue with you.

My point is that partial disability is still a liability to the employer, and adds to the cost of running the business/agency. Preventing hearing loss by the use of suppressors and other hearing protection equipment reduces the incidence of hearing damage, hence the incidence and prevalence of hearing loss and disability claims related to it.

Not to be argumentative here, though...

Nope.The guys you mention are trained to make their mission their priority.

SWAT TEAMS,like other LEO's,are trained that "officer safety is paramount".At least that's what I keep reading in the newspapers when LEO's really screw the pooch.

Gotta agree with this, even the non-argumentative part...

You might be surprised to know where all those old M16s have ended up. I know of one small county sheriffs office here in Arkansas that has 3 A1s that are on permanent loan from the feds. The 3 M14s they have interest me more.

Bad comparison for a variety of reasons. While there are always exceptions, hearing loss, even if total, generally does not disable one from working, though it may qualify them for a given 'benefit', depending on which payor and what standard is being applied, whether contained in an insurance contract or statute.