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Why Suppressors Should Be Normalized For Home Defense
For a considerable amount of time, there has been an ongoing debate on the use of suppressors for home defense situations. While there aren’t many quality arguments as to why you shouldn’t run a suppressor on your home defense firearm, they do exist, and people in the gun community love to debate.
Either way, there are substantial reasons regarding your safety and health in favor of suppressors for home defense. But before we jump in, do consider that you will most likely have your firearm confiscated by the police due to it being a part of the evidence in the event of a shooting.
You would be surprised how quiet a 9mm can be when suppressed. Source
That’s not something people want to deal with. Suppressors are challenging to acquire, and court cases can be arduous and take a significant amount of time to conclude. However, I do believe you’ll find that it’s worth losing for a bit to preserve your health in the long term.
Prevents Sensory Overload
There’s nothing like panic, darkness, and loud noises to throw your senses into a frenzy. Couple that with the sense of needing to protect, and in no time, you can find yourself extremely overwhelmed, on the verge of vomiting, and in the right place to make a huge mistake.
Remember, even in a self-defense situation, you have to make the right moves and choices. Or you may find yourself on the wrong end of 12 of your peers and a judge.
Suppressor or not, the AR-15 is loud. But still far louder without. Source
The most significant stressors you have to worry about are panic and loud noises. Gunshots can easily disorient you, throw you off, and put you in the wrong state of mind to be making any life-altering choices. It only takes one gunshot to throw you off. Now, imagine if you’re faced with more than one intruder. Who also have guns.
Reduce Hearing Damage
Using a suppressor can protect your hearing, which in turn can help protect you from the consequences of making the wrong decisions. I know, it seems extreme, but even the most minor details can save you.
Plus, your hearing is one of your most valuable assets. A necessity for living a quality life. As I’m sure you know, discharging a firearm indoors can lead to severe hearing damage, which can affect your quality of life until the day you die.
Now imagine shooting in an even smaller space than your local range and without ear protection.
While suppressors don’t eliminate the noise, they can reduce it enough to prevent it from causing permanent damage to your hearing. Yes, you’ll still feel it, and it will not be pleasant, but you can reduce the decibels enough to protect your ears partially and those of your family.
And this is all dependent on what firearm you’re using for home defense. Personally, I find an AR-15 chambered in .300 Blackout with a suppressor to be the ultimate home defense weapon. It hits hard, has a great magazine capacity, and is extremely quiet when suppressed.
Reduces Muzzle Flash
Adding to the sensory overload factor, the inclusion of bright flashes of light poses a significant liability for two reasons. One, each time you take a shot, you’re essentially flashbanging yourself. Two, you’re exposing your whereabouts to the enemies. You shoot at one, the other knows where you are.
Aside from decibel reduction, suppressors serve as a flash-hiding device that helps maintain your natural night vision. Without a suppressor, the noise and light will take you more and more out of the fight with each shot.
This is a bit dramatic, but you get the idea. Source
Ideally, you’ll only have to shoot once, but according to a recent Google search I ran while writing this article, 45% of burglaries are done in pairs. So, for all intents and purposes, ensuring that you can stay in the fight for more than one intruder is paramount.
To do so, keep your ears and eyes protected.
Mitigate Panic In Your Neighborhood
Loud gunshots in the middle of the night are a surefire way to wake up the neighbors and have the Ring camera app riddled with, “Loud gunshots in our neighborhood??” One of the last things you need when you’re trying to keep things under control is more chaos and panic.
Using a suppressor lessens the chances of your neighbors waking up in the middle of the night to gunshots, allowing you to retain control over the situation and reducing the chance of causing mass panic.
It’s Already On Your Rifle
Last but not least, odds are your suppressor is already on your rifle. Are you planning on taking it off your rifle in the middle of the night when you’re half asleep and you hear ruffians rummaging about your house? I don’t think so. You’re gonna grab your rifle and start securing the area.
While all the other reasons mentioned on this list pertain to protecting your hearing, eyesight, or sanity, this reason is apparent. If it’s already on, might as well leave it on and get on with what you have to do.
Conclusion
Using a suppressor for home defense offers more good than bad. Sure, your suppressor may be confiscated until the court makes its conclusion, but that’s not a big sacrifice when you consider the outcome of a gun going off next to your ear.
.300 Blackout Suppressed is my go-to for home defense. Source
Also, you can buy another suppressor. Will you get your hearing back? No. Will you be able to live an everyday life with the vertigo that comes with hearing loss? No. And do you know how expensive hearing aids are? Hint: they aren’t cheap.
Therefore, consider using a suppressor for home defense. Your quality of life depends on it.
Be good and take care.
