--- title: Congress Could Still Make It Easier to Buy a Gun Silencer description: Speaker Paul Ryan refused to rule out holding a vote on a measure to make gun silencers easier to buy. canonical: https://time.com/4967020/las-vegas-shooting-silencers-bill-vote-paul-ryan/ author: Alana Abramson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-10-03T15:22:29.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T17:42:31.307Z article:section: Politics og:title: Congress Could Still Make It Easier to Buy a Silencer og:description: Speaker Paul Ryan refused to rule it out og:url: https://time.com/4967020/las-vegas-shooting-silencers-bill-vote-paul-ryan/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfa7c2547a8e14e0a/6988d78a656a3f3e70bd1082/paul-ryan-health-care-bill-disappointed.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: US-POLITICS-RYAN og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Congress Could Still Make It Easier to Buy a Silencer twitter:description: Speaker Paul Ryan refused to rule it out twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfa7c2547a8e14e0a/6988d78a656a3f3e70bd1082/paul-ryan-health-care-bill-disappointed.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Congress Might Still Make It Easier to Buy a Silencer After the Las Vegas Shooting  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Oct 3, 2017 3:22 PM UTC  US House Speaker Paul Ryan speaks at his weekly press conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on July 27, 2017. US House Speaker Paul Ryan speaks at his weekly press conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on July 27, 2017.NICHOLAS KAMM—AFP/Getty Images  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Oct 3, 2017 3:22 PM UTC The U.S. House of Representatives has not yet scheduled a vote for a bill that would loosen regulations on silencers, but Speaker Paul Ryan did not rule out a vote in the future. In the wake of the [deadliest mass shooting](http://time.com/4965966/mass-shootings-las-vegas/) in modern American history, gun control advocates criticized Republican lawmakers for their sponsorship of a bill that would [make it easier to buy suppressors](http://time.com/4965056/las-vegas-shooting-gun-silencer-bill/), often popularly referred to as silencers. “I don’t know when its going to be scheduled,” Ryan said of the bill. We’re focusing on passing our budget.” On Sunday, [59 people were killed](http://time.com/4965896/las-vegas-shooting-victims-names/?xid=homepage) and more than 500 injured in a shooting at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. The shooting drew attention to the Sportsmen’s Heritage and Recreational Enhancement Act, or SHARE Act, which would make it easier to hunt and fish on federal land as well as reduce regulations on the purchase of suppressors. Despite the “silencer” name, suppressors do not make gunshots silent. Even with a suppressor in place, an AR-15 rifle is [roughly as loud as a jackhammer](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2017/03/20/are-firearms-with-a-silencer-quiet/?utm%5Fterm=.0d5cee374281). Supporters say the bill is about protecting recreational gun users from hearing loss. A senior Republican leadership aide disputed that the decision not to hold a vote had anything to do with the shooting. “This package had unresolved issues within our conference prior to this week and was not scheduled for the floor prior to this incident. These Democrat narratives just aren’t true,” said the aide. The debate over this bill was last postponed in June, after House Majority Whip Steve Scalise was shot after a gunman opened fire on a Republican practice for the Congressional baseball game in June. Scalise spent weeks in the hospital, and [only returned to the Capitol](http://time.com/4960930/steve-scalise-capitol-hill-return/) last week. _Nash Jenkins contributed to this report._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4967020/las-vegas-shooting-silencers-bill-vote-paul-ryan/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4967020/las-vegas-shooting-silencers-bill-vote-paul-ryan/"},"headline":"Congress Might Still Make It Easier to Buy a Silencer After the Las Vegas Shooting","datePublished":"2017-10-03T15:22:29.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T17:42:31.307Z","description":"Speaker Paul Ryan refused to rule out holding a vote on a measure to make gun silencers easier to buy.","url":"https://time.com/4967020/las-vegas-shooting-silencers-bill-vote-paul-ryan/","keywords":["Congress","mass shootings","Gun Control","Guns","Las Vegas","onetime","las vegas shooting"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfa7c2547a8e14e0a/6988d78a656a3f3e70bd1082/paul-ryan-health-care-bill-disappointed.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alana Abramson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfa7c2547a8e14e0a/6988d78a656a3f3e70bd1082/paul-ryan-health-care-bill-disappointed.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"US-POLITICS-RYAN","caption":"US-POLITICS-RYAN","creditText":"NICHOLAS KAMM—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/congress/","name":"Congress"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4967020/las-vegas-shooting-silencers-bill-vote-paul-ryan/","name":"Congress Might Still Make It Easier to Buy a Silencer After the Las Vegas Shooting"}}]}] ```