Monday 6 June 2022 07:46 PM Democratic Rep. Don Beyer suggests bill adding a 1,000% TAX on AR-15s trends now
Virginia Democrat Rep. Don Beyer eyeing up a bill that would impose up to a 1,000% tax on assault-style weapons as a means of bypassing Republican obstruction to gun control.
Beyer, a member of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, told Insider on Sunday: 'We think that a 1,000% fee on assault weapons is just the kind of restrictive measure that creates enough fiscal impact to qualify for reconciliation.'
If Democrats were to pass a bill by reconciliation they would not need to court 10 Republican votes to break a filibuster with 60 votes in the split Senate. Reconciliation can only be used for tax and funding bills.
Democrats used reconciliation to pass both the American Rescue Plan and the Build Back Better bill in the House.
They would still need to get key moderate Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., on board. Manchin has expressed an openness to banning AR-15-style weapons. 'I never felt I needed something of that magnitude,' Manchin, a gun owner himself, told CNN.
The AR-15 is America's most popular semi-automatic weapon-- they account for one in five guns in the U.S. The weapon typically costs between $700 and $1,200. A 1,000% tax would mean they would cost anywhere from $7,000 to $12,000, putting the weapon out of price range for most people.
Virginia Democrat Rep. Don Beyer eyeing up a bill that would impose up to a 1,000% tax on assault-style weapons as a means of bypassing Republican obstruction to gun control
The AR-15 is America's most popular semi-automatic weapon-- they account for one in five guns in the U.S.
The weapon typically costs between $700 and $1,200. A 1,000% tax would mean they would cost anywhere from $7,000 to $12,000, putting the weapon out of price range for most people