Is NRA Poised to Approve Suppressors for High Power Rifle Competition?

Opinion

For many years, perhaps even since its inception, the National Rifle Association of America has prohibited the use of suppressors in High-Power Rifle Competition. Muzzle brakes are also prohibited.

Recently, both the NRA’s High Power Rifle Committee and the Competitions Rules and Programs Committee approved language amending the current High Power Rifle Rules to allow lawfully owned suppressors in NRA High Power Rifle competitions, including the National Championships.

The proposed measure will now go to the Board of Directors for consideration and potential approval during the NRA’s Winter Meetings in Dallas in January 2025.

Previous attempts to legalize the use of suppressors in NRA High Power Rifle Competition have been met with skepticism and failure at the Board level. Prior attempts to amend the High Power Rifle Rules to allow for the use of suppressors have failed because the NRA Board has been concerned that a rule that allows the use of suppressors in some states while other states make possession of such devices a felony could cause problems for unsuspecting members and would be unfair and discriminatory against those who live in jurisdictions where possession of such devices is still illegal.

In the past, the Board has voiced concern that such a rule might result in making otherwise law-abiding members into “accidental felons” in at least three possible factual scenarios:

1. Where a person who legally owns a duly registered suppressor in “State A” is traveling through “State B” where possession of a suppressor is illegal on the way to a High Power Rifle match in “State C” where that same suppressor is also legal, and somehow gets caught with the suppressor in “State B” where it is illegal. (Please note that the so-called “FOPA Defense” is unlikely to prevail in a suppressor case. See, 18 U.S.C. §926A); or
2. Where a person who lives in a state where the suppressor is legal takes it to a match in a state where it is not legal, not knowing that the other state’s law prohibits ownership of the suppressor, and somehow gets caught with it; or
3. Where a person from a state where the suppressor is legal forgets that the suppressor is tucked away in its normal spot somewhere in their gear and somehow gets caught with it in the state that has outlawed suppressors.

Also, in the past, the Board has voiced concern that such a Rule would discriminate against competitors who are not allowed to own a suppressor in favor of those competitors who are allowed to own suppressors, all based upon the person’s state of residence. Many Board members felt that such a discriminatory rule would be unfair on its face.

However, most High Power Rifle competitors seem to agree that a suppressor provides no unfair advantage in favor of the shooter using it.

States that currently prohibit the private ownership of suppressors include the following: California, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey and Rhode Island, plus Washington, D.C. With the obvious exception of Hawaii, each of those jurisdictions share a common boundary with a state where the private ownership of suppressors is permitted. In aggregate, those eight states and the District of Columbia represent a disproportionately large percentage of NRA members and NRA High Power Rifle competitors.

Should the new High Power Rifle rule allowing the use of suppressors in NRA High Power Rifle Competition be approved by the Board, that same amendment to the Rules will contain a provision that will require Match Directors conducting NRA sanctioned matches in states where suppressors remain illegal to include in their Match Program a warning to all competitors that suppressors will not be allowed in that tournament and that privately owned suppressors are illegal in that state.

It remains to be seen what the Board will do with this proposal when it is presented in January. This Director will cast a “yes” vote in favor of allowing the use of suppressors in NRA High Power Rifle competition in jurisdictions where the possession of suppressors is legal under local law.

POSTSCRIPT:

Assuming this proposal passes, please do not bring your suppressor to Delaware for a High Power Rifle match. Delaware law classifies a suppressor as a “Destructive Weapon,” possession of which is a Class E “violent” felony, punishable by up to five (5) years’ incarceration. Please be careful. Please do not become an “accidental felon.”

About John C. Sigler

Mr. John C. Sigler is Chair of NRA’s F-Class High Power Rifle Committee. John was a member of the United States F-Class (Open) Rifle Teams that won the 2023 World Championship (Gold Medal) in South Africa and the Third Place Bronze Medal at the 2017 World Championships in Canada. Mr. Sigler holds NRA Distinguished International Rifleman Badge #67.