Do Silencers Really Make Guns Silent?

 Most of us have watched an action movie or two that features a silenced gun which barely makes a noise when fired. But in real life are silencers (AKA suppressors) actually this effective?
First we need to understand why shooting a gun is so loud. The sound of a gunshot is made in part by the explosion that shoots each bullet from the barrel of the gun. The sound is also made by the bullet breaking the sound barrier.
A silencer or suppressor does make gunshots quieter, but not to the extent we see in movies and TV shows. This takes away some of the noise generated by the actual explosion. To take away the crack made by breaking the sound barrier subsonic ammunition is used. Here is a video showing the difference between supersonic and subsonic ammo: http://youtu.be/cGk9ZVQkz2M?t=49
The sound of the gunshot is relatively quiet, but still is not the "pew" heard in movies.

To summarize, suppressors do work to an extent, just not as well as they do in the movies.

Sources: htttps://www.wikipedia.com/, https://www.todayifoundout.com/