Democrats want a 1,000% excise tax on ‘assault weapons,’ as well as high-capacity magazines.

When Democrats ran the House last year, they failed to pass the same idea.
More than two dozen House Democrats put forward a bill on Friday that would put a 1,000% income tax on “assault weapons” and high-capacity mags. This would raise the price of a $500 gun to $5,000, making it harder for people nationwide to get guns.

Rep. Don Beyer, a Democrat from Virginia, and 24 other Democrats in the House presented the bill on Friday. This idea has been brought up by Democrats twice before.

When Democrats ran the House last year, Beyer and 37 other Democrats came up with the same idea, but nothing came of it.

The copy of Beyer’s new bill wasn’t out by the weekend, so it wasn’t clear if it differed from the one he introduced in 2022. His bill from last year put a tax on any clip or similar gadget that can hold more than ten bullets.
Any “semiautomatic assault weapon,” described in a bill from last year as a semiautomatic rifle or gun with a fixed magazine that holds ten rounds or more and other features, would have the same 1,000% tax put on it.

Under that rule, people would have to pay more than $20,000 for a gun that usually costs $2,000. Beyer said last year that this change could help “stop the epidemic of gun violence.”

“Congress must do something to stop the flood of war weapons into American communities,” Beyer said. “These weapons have caused terrible damage in Uvalde, Buffalo, Tulsa, and many other places.” “Assault weapons made for the battlefield have been used repeatedly in mass shootings at schools, grocery stores, hospitals, churches, synagogues, malls, theaters, bars, and other places.”

The National Rifle Association has said that people who want to control guns use the term “assault weapon” to “deliberately confuse the public and advance the political cause of gun control.” The National Rifle Association says that the word “assault rifle” only applies to fully automatic weapons, while people who want to control guns wish to put limits on semiautomatic weapons.

Entirely automatic weapons keep firing rounds as long as the trigger is pulled. The NRA has said that the U.S. military uses these weapons, but they are more challenging to get than semiautomatic weapons, which only fire one round.

Beyer’s new bill was presented a day after more than 100 Democrats told House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., that they are “disappointed” that House GOP leaders haven’t moved any gun control legislation this year.
In a public message to McCarthy, they said, “As members of the Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, we ask you to hold votes on gun violence prevention legislation as soon as possible this year.”

“Since 2020, gun crime has been the top cause of death among American children. Last year, gun crime killed 1,686 children and hurt 4,485 more,” the letter said. “Despite all this violence that could have been stopped, the House hasn’t even voted on a single bill to stop gun violence.”