Clever?
- Lucian@going2paris.net
- Jun 8, 2022
- 2 min read
Kentucky- Virginia Border
On US 23
June 7, 2022
I am not advocating a position. Just interesting ideas. To be clearer, I believe a multidimensional approach would be good.
I know it sounds unlikely, but for the past few days I have wondered why someone had not proposed a large tax on AR-15 sales. And look who is proposing it — Don Beyer.
A Democratic congressman is drafting legislation that would impose a 1,000% tax on assault weapons in response to a terrifying spate of mass shootings.
Rep. Don Beyer’s bill would create an excise tax on the sale of military-style semi-automatic rifles, including the popular AR-15-style rifles, and ammunition magazines that hold more than 10 bullets. The Virginia Democrat is pushing for the bill to pass in the Senate without GOP support using a special procedure known as budget reconciliation
At least it is some out of the box thinking
I found this interesting — from 2016:
The AR-15 is the most talked about gun in America.
But the AR-15’s creator died before the weapon became a popular hit and his family has never spoken out.
Until now.
"Our father, Eugene Stoner, designed the AR-15 and subsequent M-16 as a military weapon to give our soldiers an advantage over the AK-47,” the Stoner family told NBC News late Wednesday. "He died long before any mass shootings occurred. But, we do think he would have been horrified and sickened as anyone, if not more by these events."
The inventor’s surviving children and adult grandchildren spoke exclusively to NBC News by phone and email, commenting for the first time on their family’s uneasy legacy. They requested individual anonymity in order to speak freely about such a sensitive topic. They also stopped short of policy prescriptions or legal opinions.
fair point about incremental. but i would have thought a focus on the 97% would provide a more meaningful reduction, not the 3%. i know that politicians see the AR-15 as a more "sexy" target for news facetime. for the record i don't own one, don't intend to ever purchase one either. but even if the Beyer tax eliminated all mass murder events with an AR-15 (doubtful that a criminal wouldn't just steal $1000 to pay the tax too), that leaves 97% unaddressed. the DOJ data did not indicate whether multiple people were killed with a handgun in one event. FBI data identify a mass murder event as 4 or more people at one event.
then i was curious how much does the Federal government already collect from such taxes. The most recent data i could find was from the 4th quarter for 2018. some states also tax as well.
So i was curious about the concept of taxing a firearm as the government rarely misses an opportunity to tax something.
https://www.ttb.gov/firearms/taxes-and-tax-exemptions
Based on most recent data from the DOJ, the majority of homicides as a result of gun violence are from handguns, not AR-15s (3%). Does his proposal also include an approach to mental illness, decline of family fabric, stricter sentencing of repeat offenders, etc... It sounds more of the usual ...if we just pass more regulations (laws and taxes), the bad guys will obey the new ones. To think that those who commit those heinous acts he seeks to reduce would now pay taxes is a bit far fetched. As the other forms of taxation do not involve constitutionally identified "rights", are the comparisons appropriate? Why not impose taxes on all objects/actions which result in the death of a a…