According to The Daily Wire, Rep. Donald Beyer of Virginia, who sits on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, is proposing a 1000-percent federal tax on all AR-15 purchases as a 'deterrent to mass shootings' -- an absurd idea that will raise the cost of such rifles to between $5,000 and $20,000 apiece.
In an interview with Business Insider, Beyer said: “What it’s intended to do is provide another creative pathway to actually make some sensible gun control happen. We think that a 1,000 percent fee on assault weapons is just the kind of restrictive measure that creates enough fiscal impact to qualify for reconciliation.”
First and foremost, the models of AR-15 rifles for sale to the general public are not 'assault weapons.' They are semi-automatic rifles of a kind that have been sold in the U.S. for more than 100 years. Only in the past couple of decades beginning with the Columbine High School massacre in the late 1990s have school shootings become a 'thing.' And to be honest, in nearly every instance, the shooters are younger males with mental health issues (so that is where our resources should be going -- as well as into fostering two-parent homes, personal responsibility, faith-based and human rights-based values, and other cultural and societal mores and values that the left has worked to destroy for just as long).
According to the report, naturally, Beyer's bill would exempt police and the military -- two institutions Democrats will use to enforce their authoritarianism once they finally succeed in removing all guns from private ownership:
A final draft of Beyer’s bill is not yet complete, and it is still unclear when the tax would take effect and what the added revenue would fund, although one possibility is a restitution program for family members of victims killed in shootings. Beyer said that law enforcement agencies and the U.S. military wouldn’t be subject to the tax. The lawmaker added that he believes his bill can clear the House, where Democrats hold a clear majority, and bypass the filibuster in the Senate, where Vice President Kamala Harris could cast the deciding vote.
"Congress must act to prevent mass shootings. I’m writing a bill to restrict the flow of weapons of war into American communities - including AR-15’s and high capacity magazines - that could bypass the filibuster and pass with just 50 votes in the Senate," Beyer tweeted in regards to his disastrous bill.
Congress must act to prevent mass shootings.
I’m writing a bill to restrict the flow of weapons of war into American communities - including AR-15’s and high capacity magazines - that could bypass the filibuster and pass with just 50 votes in the Senate:https://t.co/dXFRFftYxu
— Rep. Don Beyer (@RepDonBeyer) June 5, 2022
Needless, unjustified, and stupid.
What you should call this garbage is the "Black Market For AR-15s Creation Act."
— Dr. Jonny Republic If You Can Keep It ?? (@JonDougherty10) June 7, 2022
According to Beyer, his plan is to pass the measure through reconciliation which means there would be no 60-vote filibuster hurdle. And because it is considered a tax proposal, the legislation likely meets the requirement for reconciliation, according to current congressional rules.
"An estimated 20 million AR-15-style rifles are in circulation in the U.S., and about 20% of all new firearms purchases meet the description," The Daily Wire notes. "President Biden has called for a ban on what the Left often describes as 'assault weapons,' although the term is not a technical firearm definition.
"A bill proposed by Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) defines 'assault weapons' as 'military-style' rifles, including those with 'a magazine that is not a fixed ammunition magazine and has one or more military characteristics including a pistol grip, a forward grip, a barrel shroud, a threaded barrel or a folding or telescoping stock,'" the report added.
It's not at all clear such a piece of legislation would garner votes from all 50 Democratic senators, let alone all Republicans. And the fact is, these weapons are still rarely used in mass murders (handguns -- as in Chicago, St. Louis, Detroit, Washington, D.C., etc. -- are used far more often).
But what is clear is that if it passes, a massive black market for AR-15s will spring up, negating any effects this measure would have had. Only a partisan hack can't see that.
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