A new government effort to map hearing loss in America inspired us to dig deeper, revealing a surprising explanation for the partisan gap in hearing loss.
I like guns, a lot. I own more guns than the typical gun owner. Given that I compete when I can–I have a match this weekend with a projected round count of 450, between rifle and pistol–I shoot more than about 99% of all gun owners.
I never shoot without ear protection. When I’m near people that are shooting rifles, I prefer to have both ear plugs and electronic ear muffs (because even with ear muffs, a gun shot is LOUD). Yeah, I’ve got hearing damage, but that’s because I was stupid and went to a shit ton of punk, industrial, and metal shows without hearing protection before I wised up in my 30s and started wearing ear protection to concerts. (I highly recommend Etymotic high-fidelity ear plugs; they reduce sound more evenly than foam earplugs, so you don’t end up having the earplugs kill all the treble and mid without touching the bass. The sound is much, much cleaner than with foam ear plugs.)
I will probably start buying silencers once I can, because they’re just too useful at preserving your hearing if you’re a high-volume shooter.
And, BTW - there’s no record of why silencers were put in the NFA of 1934. There apparently wasn’t any debate about it. We know that all handguns were originally going to be in the NFA, and short-barrel rifles and shotguns were included to prevent people from using that as a work-around for a handgun ban. But handguns were removed from the final version, which made SBRs and SBSs orphans in the bill. The best guess about silencers is that they were banned to make it a little easier for game wardens to detect poachers, since 1934 was the height of the Great Depression, and poaching was a common way for very poor people to feed themselves.
3M earplugs are fine for blocking noise in general. But all foam ear plugs block more noise at the treble and mid ranges better than in the bass. For live music, that means that the sound will end up being very muddy, with way too much drum and bass, and the vocals, lead, and rhythm guitar will be mostly gone. Etymotic is specifically good for audio settings; you’re getting less overall noise reduction, but it’s keeping the sound more clear.
I think that bass in particular is hard to block because at least some of the sound it through conduction rather than air movement in your ear canal.
I like guns, a lot. I own more guns than the typical gun owner. Given that I compete when I can–I have a match this weekend with a projected round count of 450, between rifle and pistol–I shoot more than about 99% of all gun owners.
I never shoot without ear protection. When I’m near people that are shooting rifles, I prefer to have both ear plugs and electronic ear muffs (because even with ear muffs, a gun shot is LOUD). Yeah, I’ve got hearing damage, but that’s because I was stupid and went to a shit ton of punk, industrial, and metal shows without hearing protection before I wised up in my 30s and started wearing ear protection to concerts. (I highly recommend Etymotic high-fidelity ear plugs; they reduce sound more evenly than foam earplugs, so you don’t end up having the earplugs kill all the treble and mid without touching the bass. The sound is much, much cleaner than with foam ear plugs.)
I will probably start buying silencers once I can, because they’re just too useful at preserving your hearing if you’re a high-volume shooter.
And, BTW - there’s no record of why silencers were put in the NFA of 1934. There apparently wasn’t any debate about it. We know that all handguns were originally going to be in the NFA, and short-barrel rifles and shotguns were included to prevent people from using that as a work-around for a handgun ban. But handguns were removed from the final version, which made SBRs and SBSs orphans in the bill. The best guess about silencers is that they were banned to make it a little easier for game wardens to detect poachers, since 1934 was the height of the Great Depression, and poaching was a common way for very poor people to feed themselves.
Removed by mod
3M earplugs are fine for blocking noise in general. But all foam ear plugs block more noise at the treble and mid ranges better than in the bass. For live music, that means that the sound will end up being very muddy, with way too much drum and bass, and the vocals, lead, and rhythm guitar will be mostly gone. Etymotic is specifically good for audio settings; you’re getting less overall noise reduction, but it’s keeping the sound more clear.
I think that bass in particular is hard to block because at least some of the sound it through conduction rather than air movement in your ear canal.