- A recent string of mass shootings is causing Rep. Don Beyer to seek an aggressive tax on AR-15 style weapons.
- Beyer said his bill is a “creative pathway” to restrict AR-15 sales with only Democratic votes.
- It faces very steep odds against passage in an election year.
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 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 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.
Law enforcement agencies and the US military wouldn’t be subject to the tax, Beyer said. The legislation would also apply only to future assault weapon sales — and not to the 20 million AR-15-style rifles already estimated to be in circulation across the US. Other guns used for hunting and other recreational purposes would also be exempt.
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.
The definition of an assault weapon in the Beyer bill closely mirrors a measure that Rep. David Cicilline of Rhode Island is pushing. That bill would ban weapons with at least one military characteristic like a pistol grip or a forward grip.
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 probable 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 push through the stimulus law and the House-approved Build Back Better bill over united GOP resistance.
One expert says his measure likely…
Read More: House Democrat to Introduce Bill That Would Hit AR-15’s With 1000% Tax