Suppressor

A suppressor, sound suppressor, or sound moderator, is a device attached to or part of the barrel of a firearm which reduces the amount of noise and also usually the amount of muzzle flash generated by firing the weapon. Suppressors can be used both with gunpowder-based weapons and with compressed air weapons. Sometimes referred to as a silencer, this term is a misnomer associated with "movie magic", as firearms cannot be "silenced" due to the pure physics of the projectile moving through the air. Long distance shooting (i.e. greater than 300 meters), while using a supressor can result in a very low, or retarded, report noise at the moment of impact, creating a "silenting" notion at the point of target. The noise heard at the firearm location as the point a projectile leaves the barrel, though subdued, is not silent at all.