Rep. Don Beyer, D-Virginia, launched a invoice to impose a 1,000% excise tax on producers, importers or producers of assault weapons and high-capacity magazines within the wake of a string of mass shootings throughout the nation.
The Assault Weapons Excise Act, launched Tuesday within the Home, faces steep odds of passing in Congress. Final week, the Home handed a gun management measure that may elevate the minimal age for purchasing most assault weapons from 18 to 21 and prohibit high-capacity ammunition magazines after lawmakers heard testimony from victims of the latest mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas and Buffalo, New York. Beyer’s invoice may go within the Senate with a easy 50-vote majority as a income measure through reconciliation, his workplace famous.
Neither invoice is more likely to go within the Senate, however a bunch of senators has been negotiating a restricted set of gun security measures and reached settlement over the weekend on a broad framework that features funds to permit states to go so-called “purple flag” legal guidelines to maintain weapons out of the arms of harmful folks, broaden assist for group behavioral well being facilities, shut the so-called “boyfriend loophole” for single people who find themselves convicted of committing violence towards a companion, and supply funding for varsity safety.
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Beyer’s Assault Weapons Excise Act would impose a 1,000% excise tax on the manufacture, manufacturing or importation of assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines. The invoice contains an exemption for federal, state and native authorities entities, so the armed providers and legislation enforcement could be unaffected.
As a income measure, the invoice is designed to be included in funds reconciliation laws and face up to challenges beneath the Byrd Rule to offer a pathway to go a brand new restriction on assault weapons with a easy majority within the Senate. Beyer is a member of the tax-writing Home Methods and Means Committee.
“Congress should take motion to stem the flood of weapons of conflict into American communities, which have taken a horrible toll in Uvalde, Buffalo, Tulsa, and too many different locations,” Beyer mentioned in a press release Tuesday. “Repeatedly assault weapons designed to be used on the battlefield have been utilized in mass shootings at faculties, grocery shops, hospitals, church buildings, synagogues, malls, theaters, bars and so forth. Because the response in Uvalde reveals, even legislation enforcement really feel outgunned. I’ve voted prior to now for commonsense gun security reforms solely to see them run aground on Senate Republicans’ filibuster; my invoice presents a pathway to bypass that obstruction and enact lifesaving measures. If the Senate is ready to agree on the legislative package deal at the moment beneath dialogue, which might be a really optimistic improvement, my invoice would give the Senate an possibility for additional motion to deal with the epidemic of gun violence. It’s important that Congress take significant motion to stop gun violence, and the invoice I’m placing ahead can lower via the gridlock and get it carried out.”
The textual content of the Assault Weapons Excise Act defines firearms and ammunition magazines topic to its 1,000 % excise tax utilizing up to date language and phrases largely drawn from Assault Weapons Ban of 2021, launched final 12 months by Rep. David Cicilline, D-Rhode Island, which Beyer cosponsors. The gunman who killed 19 youngsters and two lecturers at Robb Elementary College in Uvalde, Texas used an AR-15 mannequin rifle which reportedly retails for $1,870. If the Assault Weapons Excise Act have been signed into legislation, Beyers’ workplace famous, the price of the identical firearm could be $18,700.