Review by J. David Truby, PhD
GUN DIGEST BOOK OF SUPPRESSORS, by Patrick Sweeney. ©2016. Published by Gun Digest. Paperback. Illustrated.
256 pages. Price about $20. Even less for the e-book edition.
Thorough and well researched are good descriptions for this comprehensive review of the “what, how, where and why” of suppressors, the current semi-PC term for firearms silencers that suffered a bad reputation from the evil imagination of Hollywood. We are finally emerging from that false evility as shooters discover the factual benefits of a firearm’s silencer/suppressor. e.g., shooter hearing protection, protecting non-shooters from gunfire noise, etc.
Sweeney brings us up to date with his cheerleading book on the technical and developmental side of the topic as he explains how and where to purchase, use and maintain these gun accessories. It is a good book as Sweeney researches and writes his stories well.
I trust my professional judgment and expertise on this topic because I wrote and Paladin Press published my first three books on silencers/suppressors way back in the 1970s. The first commercial book on the topic was Donald B. McLean’s Firearms Silencers, published by Normount Armament Company in 1968. For years, McLean’s and my three were the sole pioneer books on that topic. Since then, many others have written their own superb books about silencers/suppressors.
My only criticism of this newest one is with the Gun Digest Publisher who is advertising Sweeney’s book as “the first and only guide to suppressors.” When I contacted the publisher about what I strongly consider to be their obvious and totally erroneous advertising claim I was immediately turned over to their corporate lawyer who must have totally shut off my communication with anyone associated with Sweeney and his book. As George Hayduke, author of The Hayduke Silencer Book (1989) cryptically observed with his typical humorous excoriation, “Corporate lawyers, hah hah…and people thought that only firearms silencers could be evil.
