The California Medical Association’s decision to oppose the deregulation of basic hearing protection is a textbook case of regulatory capture dressed up as public health. By treating earplugs and electronic earmuffs as if they were exotic accessories rather than the bare-minimum safety equipment every range already requires, the CMA is effectively arguing that the risk of permanent hearing loss is preferable to letting adults buy the same gear online without a doctor’s note. That stance ignores decades of data showing that shooters who protect their hearing early and often retain better long-term auditory function than the general population, and it conveniently sidesteps the fact that California already mandates eye and ear protection at every licensed range.
What makes the position especially galling is the selective application of “medical expertise.” The same organization that once warned against the supposed dangers of shall-issue concealed-carry permits now claims authority over something as mundane as foam earplugs. In practice, the rule forces new shooters—often young adults or first-time hunters—to either overpay at big-box stores or risk driving to the range without protection because an online order is delayed by prescription red tape. The 2A community has watched this pattern before: incremental “safety” hurdles that never quite sunset, each one normalized until the next restriction feels reasonable by comparison.
For gun owners the takeaway is straightforward. When a medical trade group lobbies to keep basic safety gear under professional gatekeeping, the goal is not fewer perforated eardrums; it is fewer frictionless entry points into the shooting sports. The CMA’s stance hands anti-Second-Amendment legislators another precedent: if earplugs require a prescription, why not trigger locks, ammunition serialization, or training mandates dressed up as “clinical guidelines”? The fight over hearing protection is therefore a skirmish in a much larger campaign to decide whether the right to keep and bear arms includes the practical ability to train without bureaucratic friction.
