Gun Laws & Legislation

New bill in congress seeks to tax gun sales at 20% and ammo sales at 50%

Guns and Gear Contributor
Font Size:

By Dan Cannon, GunsSaveLives.net

There is a new anti-gun bill sitting on Capitol Hill, and it doesn’t deal with banning particular models of firearms or even universal background checks.

The Gun Violence Prevention and Safe Communities Act of 2013, was proposed by U.S. Reps. Danny K. Davis, D-Ill., and Bill Pascrell, D-N.J. The bill seeks to raise the tax rate on gun sales from 10% to 20%.

Perhaps even more disturbing is that the bill also seeks to raise the tax rate on ammunition purchases to 50%.

Davis released the following statement in a press release,

Gun violence is a daily reality for America and, in particular, for urban cities like Chicago. The crisis should outrage us all. This legislation is a pro-active approach to reducing gun violence by using proven preventive programs which have been starved for funds until now. As part of a comprehensive, multidimensional strategy to reduce gun violence, this legislation closes major loopholes in tax law and lays out an equitable, long term, sustainable strategy to provide the requisite resources.

The preamble of the bill reads as follows,

To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to increase the excise tax and special occupational tax in respect of firearms and to increase the transfer tax on any other weapon, and for other purposes.

The bill could mark a change in gun control strategy by anti-gun lawmakers. Courts have ruled several times in favor of an individual right to bear arms recently and gun control seems to be of the lowest priority to average Americans (despite the sketchy poll numbers of that anti-gunners continuously quote).

Knowing they can’t outright ban or limit guns directly the anti-gun lawmakers may take advantage of their ability to tax in order to institute additional gun control.

This bill was introduced in the Republican controlled House of Representatives and most likely won’t be moving anytime soon, but we’ll keep an eye on it all the same.

Thanks to GunsSaveLives.net

Guns and Gear