Democrats continue to test the “shall not be infringed” part of the Second Amendment, which assures “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms.”
The latest end around to the U.S. Constitution from hard-left Democrats involves a 1,000 percent tax on “assault weapons,” which would leave an AR-15 so expensive that the average American would struggle to afford one.
U.S. Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., introduced the legislation on Friday, along with 24 other House Democrats — this is Beyer’s second go, having introduced the same proposal last year along with 37 other Democrats, according to Fox News. Despite having control of the lower chamber then, his party failed to move the bill.
“The text of Beyer’s new bill was not out as of the weekend, and it was unclear if any changes were made from his 2022 version. His bill from last year imposed the tax on any magazine or related device that can accept more than 10 rounds of ammunition,” the network reported. “The same 1,000% tax would be imposed on any ‘semiautomatic assault weapon,’ which last year’s bill defined as a semiautomatic rifle or pistol with a fixed magazine of 10 rounds or more or that have other various features.”
“Congress must take action to stem the flood of weapons of war into American communities, which have taken a terrible toll in Uvalde, Buffalo, Tulsa and too many other places,” the Democrat said last year. “Again and again assault weapons designed for use on the battlefield have been used in mass shootings at schools, grocery stores, hospitals, churches, synagogues, malls, theaters, bars and so on.”
His efforts would result in a $2,000 weapon costing $20,000, which would likely mean only thieves and the affluent being able to acquire such a firearm.
The National Rifle Association disputed the characterization of an “assault weapon,” stating that the gun control crowd adopted the term to confuse the public.
“Gun control advocates adopted the term “assault weapon” from the military in an effort to deliberately confuse the public and advance the political cause of gun control. They now use it to mischaracterize a broad range of firearms used by law-abiding civilians,” the NRA-ILA said in a statement.
“The origin of ‘assault weapon’ stems from the term ‘assault rifle,’ which the U.S. Army defines explicitly as a selective-fire rifle chambered for a cartridge of intermediate power,” the pro-Second Amendment group said. “The term ‘assault rifle’ only applies to automatic firearms rather than the semi-automatic firearms that gun control advocates are focused on banning today.”
Fully automatic weapons are not easily obtained by the public.
Another term frequently used by Democrats to describe an AR-15 is a “military grade” weapon, but this is also not accurate since the rifle fires only one round with each pull of the trigger. The Firearm Industry Trade Association more accurately refers to the AR-15 as a “modern sporting rifle.”
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Tom Tillison grew up in Maryland before moving to Central Florida as a young teen. It is in the Sunshine State that he honed both his passion for politics and his writing skills. Tillison also contributes to BizPac Review.
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