Why Does Law Enforcement Need Suppressors?

For those who have been in the line of fire, these may seem like simple answers, but you must take into account these questions are mainly coming from those whose only knowledge of suppressors is the tiny “pew” “pew” noise made from a James Bond sound effects studio. Let’s break it down from the end user’s perspective and enlighten those not in the loop.

Often, due to an officer’s equipment such as radios and helmets, ear protection is usually reduced to a simple piece of foam during training and during live operations, no ear protection at all in order to hear clearly in your area of operation. When searching for a suspect, an officer must rely heavily on his or her eyes and ears to identify a threat as well as beware of any innocent bystanders. Often, when engaging a suspect with a firearm, the extreme noise and muzzle flash will temporarily ruin both senses for the officer involved leaving them at a huge disadvantage. While this is not as bad with a lower muzzle flash and report of a handgun, this can cause serious permanent damage when using a patrol rifle such as an M4. This is a key aspect of where using a suppressor can help.

By trapping the unburnt powder and initial muzzle flash inside the suppressor housing, the muzzle blast is significantly reduced. During close quarter operations, unsuppressed muzzle blast can send dirt, debris and even splinters into an officer’s unshielded eyes causing extreme damage. Additionally, the suppressed muzzle blast could protect an officer’s natural night vision capabilities after a shot. Instead of seeing dots, the officer can continue to focus on the threat. As mentioned before, hearing around the officer is obviously the most important from communications to keying in on finding a suspect. If an entire entry team is equipped with suppressed weapons, it is also easier to differentiate between a suspect’s gunshots and gunfire from a fellow officer.

Ballistically, any special operations marksmen/sniper unit can tell you there about the fouling gases of precision round’s conical vortex that play an incremental factor in accuracy as distance increases. The use of a suppressor can trim these gases away from the projectile and allow it to have a cleaner flight downrange resulting in better precision. This is also applicable to the rough muzzle blast of an M4 being shot from a stack formation on entry, saving blast and shock striking other officers in close proximity. For those who have never shot a rifle from inside a vehicle or hallway, this blast can feel like getting punched in the chest with each press of the trigger. Even with proper hearing protection, a day of CQB training leads to a night spent in the dark swallowing Advil and nursing a throbbing headache.

Finally, if it seems the use of a suppressor greatly benefits humans, think about the others who proudly serve—K-9 officers. Their hearing is much more sensitive than ours. Although highly trained not to react to gunfire, the use of suppressors could very well help extend the service life of some very expensive department investments. These brave animals serve just as proudly as their human counterparts and deserve the same protection.

Test & Eval

Recently, I have been testing Torrent’s .233 / 5.56 suppressor and enjoying what I have learned. As any suppressor company on the market can tell you, this is a platform that is difficult for anyone to suppress due to caliber velocity and the need for supersonic ammunition in order to maintain the integrity of the .223 / 5.56 round’s performance. The direct impingement system of the M4 platform can be a bit finicky when suppressed. The change in gas pressures and increased blowback can launch the bolt carrier group rearward with every shot up to 60% faster than unsuppressed.

While this may cause an issue in cheaply constructed civilian rifles, high-quality brands often selected by law enforcement and other professionals are built to take the abuse, especially if they were designed with fully auto capabilities. Most of my rifles are custom built semi-auto M4 style rifles designed around specific needs based on accessories, barrel lengths, and furniture set-ups. With thousands of rounds fired through each using suppressors, I have yet to see any undue wear from doing so on the rifles in the armory.

The Torrent T2 suppressor directly mounted to a threaded 10” barrel (1/2x28 pitch) Noveske for initial testing. The suppressor gave the short-barreled rifle a great balance by distributing the weight away from feeling stacked up into my shooting hand. For those wishing to have a quick detach method for the T2, may be interested in Torrent’s Hideout muzzle device that acts as a muzzle brake when not in use with the suppressor. While you still must screw the suppressor onto the muzzle device, you won’t have to constantly destroy crush washers and need to “time” muzzle devices in the process of taking flash hider/brakes on and off your barrel anymore.

The back blast from using a shorter gas tube design in conjunction with the suppressors back pressure did not change any felt recoil but was noticeable as with any suppressor as it escaped the ejection port. I was surprised by the reduction in noise on the short barrel rifle. The usual ball of fire erupting from the muzzle was eliminated by the T2 as well as muzzle rise, making follow up shots even faster. With a compact package shorter than most non-NFA regulated rifles, I was able to place my shots quickly on target comfortably without my eyes having to refocus in the low light of the indoor range.

When used with a standard 16” barrel AR, the suppressor made me feel like I was shooting a well-balanced sniper rifle when taking steady shots in the offhand position. The rifle’s weight was evenly disturbed and steadied my shots. I could see the effects of barrels harmonics giving longer range shots a better-looking group, where they may not have always been tighter than without the suppressor, they seemed to look more evenly distributed amongst the shot grouping.

Movement

Movement drills with the suppressor mounted were still natural and comfortable taking notice of the muzzle as always around corners and open doors. If you are running your training correctly, the addition of another 6” to 8” shouldn’t come into play with barriers or room clearing. The heat dissipates fast from the stainless-steel construction even after a long string of fire and the mirage can be hardly noticed through a red dot optic at close range.

There seemed to be much less back pressure coming from the ejection port with this rifle. Although it is equipped with a 16” carbine length barrel, the gas tube and port were built to that of a full 20” rifle specs. This cooler, reduced gas combined with the suppressor taking in less unburnt powder, made for a more comfortable rifle to shoot long term. If I were to run a two- or three-day Urban Rifle class, this would be the set up I would want to use.