Fun Guns is an official dealer for “Silencer Shop,” meaning we handle the complete process in-store, making your silencer purchase a breeze. Fun Guns is your Waco destination for silencers and suppressors.
A Brief History of Silencers
The first commercially available silencer was invented in 1902 by an M.I.T alumnus named Hiram Percy Maxim, whose father, Sir Hiram Stevens Maxim, invented the first fully automatic portable machine gun known as the “Maxim Gun.”
His Maxim Silencer looked a lot like most modern silencers today, and it used the same rudimentary design. Simply put, it was a tube filled with internal baffles that attached to the muzzle of a firearm. This silencer was marketed to sportspeople of all types and boasted an enhanced shooting experience while reducing the risk of hearing loss and noise pollution. President Teddy Roosevelt famously used a Maxim Silencer on his Winchester 1894 carbine to hunt in the early morning without waking his rich neighbors!
Silencers (also known as suppressors) continued to grow in popularity until things changed in 1934 after the implementation of the National Firearms Act. This act restricted certain firearms and devices and limited many transactions to NFA dealers, like Fun Guns. In addition to regulating ownership of fully automatic weapons and aspects like firearm barrel lengths, the NFA included a $200 tax on silencers. This tax made silencers prohibitively expensive to own, as $200 was equivalent to about $4000 today due to inflation.
However, over the last 87 years, that price point has not changed. This legacy tax is now very affordable, while innovations in engineering, design, material science, and machining have made silencers far better than ever before.