Comparisons of auditory risk metrics with suppressed and unsuppressed civilian firearms

The assessment of the risk posed by firearm noise is complicated by the divergence in the allowable numbers of rounds (ANORs) returned by the available damage-risk criteria (DRCs) for impulsive noises. The ANORs returned by DRCs are strongly correlated but wide differences exist in absolute ANORs. Some firearms have suppressors and/or discharge low-velocity ammunition, both of which increase the ANORs. The extent to which suppressors and low-velocity ammunition alter the relationships among ANORs has not been determined. In this presentation, we present ANORs across many DRCs for 14 civilian firearms (3 handguns, 10 rifles, 1 shotgun) as a function of suppressor and ammunition. Results will be compared against DRC correlations observed across 54 unsuppressed firearm conditions.