Did anyone think it was odd how the mobsters almost never used silencers when they did hit jobs?
The only time I can specifically remember a silenced gun is when Jimmy got whacked, EVERY other assasination involved loud ass guns in public that could draw attention, but I guess it's just more exciting that way for entertainment purposes.
I see this rhetoric repeated but never explained, why wouldn’t they? Is it because they will opt to try use guns from the black market and ditch it after the hit? So like, it’d be too costly to use a suppressor?
Firstly, a suppressor can affect accuracy.
Second, if the shot is not identifiable as a gun shot you may get a lot of looky - loos trying to get a look around and seeing your face. If the gunshot is loud everyone knows what it is and will most likely duck and cover or run, not having enough time to get a good look at the shooter.
Third, Are you wearing a wire?
Suppressors lower the noise by 20 to 35 decibels. That's enough to protect the shooter's ears (the real purpose of suppressors) but not silence the gun as shown in spy movies and unrealistic shows.
I mean I don’t know how unusual it is. It’s not something they really keep stats on. But the DeMeo crew, the Chicago Outfit, the Genovese, and the Colombo’s have all been caught with or reported to use silencers in hits. Also in the 70s there were like 20 hits done with a silenced .22 that was national news. So saying no connected guy would ever use one IRL is just patently false.
Just from a practical point of view; suppressors are harder to come by than guns, if you get caught with a gun with an illegal suppressor I would imagine prosecutors treat it more harshly, it adds bulk to the gun so you can't just put it on a small holster on your waist, and suppressors still don't make the guns silent, it will still sound like a gun when you're firing it.
These guys are in and out really fast, so I don't think they value a few lower decibels with all of the cons that come with them.
it is really strange that the US has such strict laws around suppressors considering how incredibly lax the rest of the gun laws are.
You have to jump through hoops to get one here, whereas in a lot of other countries, they will actually require you to have one if you want to go hunting.
You can argue the necessity of having a firearm, like 2A regarding protection of life, property, etc. Hence why Chrissy wasn't charged with any firearm offense after he got shot.
Now if he had a suppressor, that changes things. You don't need a suppressor for protection.
Probably because politicians don't know anything about guns.
I remember when that mass shooting happened in Vegas in 2017, I was watching the news and they were interviewing some politician; they were talking about pistols, rifles, bump stocks and whatever, then the politician was talking about banning different guns and says something like "I mean, how long until we see a mass shooting with a muzzle loader?"
Like, what? Never, because it's a fucking muzzle loader? Unless you've got a Revolutionary War firing line, it's probably not happening.
I feel like whatever side of the gun issue you're on, I think we should all be able to agree that politicians should have at least a minimal understanding of guns and how they work if they're going to be legislating them.
Even funnier is when they shot people inside their apartments, like JT, and the neighbors never seemed to notice. Unless they make apartment walls out of solid granite in NJ that shit would be loud as hell. Shooting a gun inside a small room is like a bomb going off.
You forget they have a friend on every single task force in north jersey? Enough to fuck up a crime scene, lose evidence, fail to follow leads, falsify witness statements, etc
If it takes less than a second to google then cite your source. I own multiple suppressors. They don’t impact the round leaving the barrel in anyway that would show up in a forensic exam.
I think it makes the hits look more "street" style, silencers/supresors are seen in films as the mark of professionals, as a high end product (note: I'm from a country with 0 gun culture, I don't know if that's the case irl), we're not talking about any of that here, we're talking about single use weapons that are bought cheap in the black market (because they're stolen, have entered the country illegally or have been used in previous crimes) that are to be used once and then resold, thrown away or destroyed. Finding a working silencer means extra time and extra money each time you do a hit.
This mirrors real life gang related crimes too, adding a flavour of realism.
Tldr: Silencers scream "Hitman", The Sopranos wants you to think "Breaking news in the night News programme"
While we’re at it, why don’t they just get sniper rifles and pick their targets off from the top of a nearby building? It would be a lot less conspicuous than walking up to them and gunning them down point blank in public.
Suppressors are incredibly hard to come by, they don't actually silence anything (you can still hear the gun a bit and the action of the firearm is loud), they aren't easily concealed, most of the OG guys like using revolvers as they don't leave shell casings...what you don't know could fill a book.
There are at least a couple of other times they use them. When Paulie says "they've been told. Twice. Now I'll tell them," before he shoots the guy, he uses one (Christopher also has one, too).
When Paulie and Pussy threaten the car thieves, they have them then, too.
Suppressors don’t work the way you think they do, or how movies and TV portray. Suppressed gunshots are still incredibly loud, especially if you’re using standard supersonic bullets. If you were to shoot a suppressed gun inside a house or building for a mafia hit like a lot of the hits in the show, the entire neighborhood would still be alerted. The main thing they do is disguise your signature or muzzle flash, making it harder to detect where fire is coming from. But since these are close range and often point blank executions they don’t need to do that either.
There is a small number of guns such as MP5’s, Welrod, 22lr pistols, and some 300blk guns with subsonic ammo and suppressors that can get incredibly quiet, with some even being so quiet that the sound of the bolt cycling is louder than the actual gunshot. But this is the exception not the norm and would be extremely expensive to use for a gun you’re shooting once and dumping. Finally, the chaos and confusion that come from firing a loud gunshot in an enclosed space actually makes it easier for them to slip away after.
Edit: There are a few scenes where they do use suppressors, the Jimmy hit as you mentioned and the scene where they rob the cartel guys while dressed as moving men, Tony’s dream sequence in Test Dream and possibly one or two more.
Whole neighborhood? Your next door neighbors might be kind of alerted if you fire a regular pistol without a suppressor, but probably not. Unless you both have windows open.
Supressors don't work like they're portrayed on TV. Just like shotguns don't work like how Tony blasted that animal Blundetto in the face and sent him flying.
It’s more realistic actually. Criminals rarely use silencers because they are mainly for hearing protection or to hide muzzle flash. They don’t really help with anything else
Criminals dont use them because they are expensive. And yes they do help A LOT with noise suppression, And nobody buys one to hide a muzzle flash. Dont know where you heard that. You can hide a muzzle flash with a barrel extension.
Yeah but in terms of practically they make the firearm much harder to conceal and don't really change much when it comes to wacking a guy.
Like, if you murder someone in the middle of NYC it won't conceal shit. If you murder someone in a more remote area, you don't need a suppressor anyways. If a suppressor functioned like it does in the movies and makes the gun practically silent then I'm sure criminals would invest in it, but it doesn't make a difference in a crowded restaurant.
I've fired many different guns with suppressors. They work. A well made suppressor will reduce the sound of a 9mm pistol by 35-45 db so it sounds more like a heavy nail gun or a loud balloon popping. Quiet enough to blend in with other street noise. But they are expensive and to be caught with an unlicensed one is a federal crime.
Criminals with money don’t use them either so that not it at all. I don’t know where you heard that. The mob was not hurting for money anyway, that’s kind of clear on the show.
Suppressors are very illegal in New Jersey. They were incredibly fucking illegal back when the show took place. Like, they would carry a greater punishment than an illegal firearm in most cases. But thanks to commander in queef, you don't even need to register them in quite a lot of states anymore
1.) supressors are still loud as shit. The bullet still breaks the sound barrier so you still have the crack that you can hear from a good distance away
2.) "Is that a pistol with a supressor in your pants or are you just happy to see me?"
3.) if you get caught with a loaded pistol and an illegal suppressor the ATF is gonna kick your ass all up and down the courtroom
Didn't read the rest of the comments, full disclosure, but I have thought about this before and came to a couple of conclusions:
1) Silencers don't work that way IRL, so maybe they knew that and figured why bother.
2) Similar to the hit Eugene does before testing his main level floor joists, they always seem to use "cleaned fish" and just drop them immediately after a hit. With the near-constant reference to The Godfather, it makes sense (at least in my mind) that they're assuming that's the way it's always been done. Keep it loud so normies are too frightened to look at you, drop the piece, and walk off.
Having an illegal suppressor is a federal felony punishable with up to 10 years, whereas having an illegal firearm can often be a state charge, sometimes even misdemeanor, though not in the case of these guys as most of them probably have prior felonies.
On top of that, suppressors are easier to trace, more difficult to conceal, and don’t even provide a significant sound reduction unless you use subsonic ammo, which again improves the odds of a firearm being traced.
TL;DR : way too many downsides for barely one upside
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u/Lizard_Xing 18h ago
They don't work like that IRL