Pirate's Cove

Remember, Democrats say they only want to stop the Bad People from having scary guns. And then in the next breath they say they want to stop law abiding from getting scary guns

A House Democrat plans to introduce a bill that would hit AR-15’s with a 1,000% tax — and it could pass Congress without GOP votes

The US has experienced a string of mass shootings in the past three weeks in Buffalo, New York; Uvalde, Texas; and Tulsa, Oklahoma, that have left scores of adults and children dead.

The recent violence is prompting one House Democrat to draft a measure aimed at severely restricting access to the AR-15-style weapons used by different gunmen in the carnage. Rep. Donald Beyer of Virginia, a member of the tax-writing House Ways and Means panel, wants to impose a 1,000% excise tax on assault weapons.

“What it’s intended to do is provide another creative pathway to actually make some sensible gun control happen,” Beyer told Insider. “We think that a 1,000% fee on assault weapons is just the kind of restrictive measure that creates enough fiscal impact to qualify for reconciliation.”

New AR-15-style guns range from $500 to over $2,000 depending on location, NBC News reported. That means a 1,000% tax on the weapon would add $5,000 to $20,000 to their final sales price — and would probably keep it out of reach from many younger Americans.

Some details of the bill still aren’t finalized, such as when the tax would kick in and what to do with any revenue raised. It’s also unclear how much money it would generate. One out of every five weapons purchased in the US in AR-15 style rifle, per the National Shooting Sports Foundation in a 2014 court brief. Gun sales have surged since then and reached their second-highest level recorded last year.

Now, imagine Pelosi and the rest of the Dems get serious about passing this: how many will be purchased before this even gets a vote?

Bullets wouldn’t be subject to the new tax. But high-capacity magazines that can carry more than 10 rounds of ammunition would be aggressively taxed at that level.

If all this could get passed, how quick would this make it to the Supreme Court and be shot down, being a punitive tax on a legal product for one thing? And a specific attempt to deny law abiding citizens their 2nd Amendment rights. Just like SCOTUS has shot down other gun grabbing laws that overcharge citizens in an attempt to stop citizens from protecting themselves.

House Democrats are rallying around their own expansive gun-control package separate from ongoing Senate negotiations on a narrower bill centered on mental health, red flag laws, and a modest expansion of background checks. The House bill is expected to fall flat in the upper chamber due to stiff GOP resistance.

That outcome prompted Beyer to eye reconciliation, the legislative tactic allowing proposed laws to bypass the Senate’s 60-vote threshold known as the filibuster and pass with a simple majority. Democrats employed the maneuver in 2021 to approve both the stimulus law and the House-approved Build Back Better bill over united GOP resistance.

Would Pelosi and Schumer use reconciliation on this? They might not be able to count on getting 50 votes in the Senate.

Read: Dem Don Beyer To Introduce Massive Tax On Scary Rifle And Big Magazine Purchases »