Chris Murphy Gives Gun Owners a Preview of What Dems Would Do to Gun Rights If and When They Regain Power

The firearm industry and gun owners just got a preview of what’s in store should antigun politicians again be able to force through punitive gun control measures. It’s a daunting – if not egregious – example of just how much contempt some elected officials have for Second Amendment rights.

U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) slipped a proposed amendment into a defense spending bill that would skyrocket the National Firearms Act tax to $4,709. That proposal comes just weeks after Congress reduced the tax to $0 from the previous $200 where it’s been since 1934.

Gun control advocates like Sen. Murphy don’t just recoil at the idea of lawful gun ownership. Politicians like him, bought and paid for by billionaire gun control benefactors, absolutely loathe Americans exercising their Second Amendment. And they’re willing to make gun owners pay the price. Literally.

Sen. Murphy slipped his proposed amendment into the House bill for Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies. That bill, H.R. 3944, is currently being considered in the Senate. That’s where Murphy proposed Senate Amendment 2973, which states, “There shall be levied, collected, and paid on firearms transferred a tax at the rate of $4,709 for each firearm transferred.” That’s specific to the tax levied by the 1934 NFA, so it would apply to all tax stamps for suppressors, short-barrel rifles, short-barrel shotguns. The $5 tax on “Any Other Weapon” would increase to $55.

Sen. Murphy didn’t feel the need to punish gun owners for exercising their Second Amendment rights when they were paying the $200 tax. It’s only now that the tax has been eliminated that he’s taking out his frustrations that he couldn’t stop the changes included in the One, Big, Beautiful Bill.

More importantly, Sen. Murphy is revealing what he and his anti-gun accomplices will do if they’re in a position to force through their unfettered gun control policies. Murphy would punish law-abiding gun owners, and the firearm industry that serves them, with burdensome laws that would price everyday Americans out of lawful firearm ownership.

If Sen. Murphy were to get his way, the Second Amendment would become a right in name only. NFA items would only be for the elite few who could afford the punitive tax and even then, they would only be accessible until the next time gun control elites raise the bar once again.

States Already Doing It

Critics who scoff at this notion that government officials bent on denying Second Amendment rights would twist the law to make lawful firearm ownership unaffordable aren’t just in a squeeze attempting to explaining Sen. Murphy’s proposal to levy nearly $5,000 each and every time a law-abiding citizens wants to purchase a suppressor, short-barrel rifle or short-barrel shotgun. Those critics know they can’t explain away the fact that there are antigun legislatures in the states that are already doing this.

Currently, California adds an 11 percent excise tax on firearms, firearm parts, and ammunition. Colorado passed legislation to add a 6.5 percent excise tax on firearm and ammunition sales. Several other state legislatures, including Maryland, Massachusetts, New Mexico, New York, and Washington have proposed similar “sin taxes” on law-abiding citizens seeking to exercise their Constitutionally-protected right to keep and bear arms.

Firearm and ammunition manufacturers already pay an 11 and 10 percent federal excise tax on firearms and ammunition, which funds wildlife conservation, habitat restoration, public land access, construction of public recreational marksmanship ranges and hunter education in all 50 states. This “user-pays” system has generated over $29 billion, when adjusted for inflation, for conservation through the Pittman-Robertson excise tax since its inception in 1937. The industry asked Congress to have this excise tax used for conservation as wildlife populations at the time were struggling. The Pittman-Robertson excise tax enhances the exercise of the Second Amendment rights and enables passing on the American heritage of hunting and recreational sports shooting to the next generation.

In contrast, Sen. Murphy’s tax, like one previously proposed by U.S. Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) to impose $1,000 tax, is unconstitutional because it’s transparently intended to suppress the exercise of a constitutional right. Imagine a $1,000 tax on purchasing a book that certain politicians don’t want you to read.

Reps. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Richard Hudson (R-N.C.), along with U.S. Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho), introduced federal legislation to keep antigun politicians from pricing lawful gun ownership out of reach for Americans through “sin taxes.” They introduced the NSSF-supported Unfair Gun Taxes Act asH.R. 2442 and S. 1169, respectively. The bicameral legislation would prohibit states from implementing excise taxes on firearms and ammunition to fund gun control programs.

Pass HPA and the SHORT Act

There’s yet another way Congress can prevent Sen. Murphy from running rampant over Second Amendment rights by jacking up taxes. Congress can take up and pass the Hearing Protect Action, introduced in the House of Representatives as H.R. 404 by Rep. Ben Cline (R-Va.) and in the Senate by Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) as S. 364 and the Stop Harassing Owners of Rifles Today (SHORT) Act as H.R. 2395 by Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) and S. 1162 by Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.). Those bills remain NSSF priorities.

HPA would remove suppressors from the National Firearms Act and make them accessible for purchase in the same manner as a firearm. That means no more tax stamp requirement (which is currently $0, but which couldn’t be raised to $4,709 by a future antigun Congress in a reconciliation package), fingerprint and photo submissions, redundant background checks, notification to the chief law enforcement officer and, importantly, no registration with the federal government. Suppressors would be available for purchase at retail with a simple Form 4473 and FBI National Instant Criminal Background Check System verification the same way actual firearms are purchased and transferred. Suppressors would be on display right next to choke tubes.

The SHORT Act would do the same for short-barrel rifles, short-barrel shotguns and “any other weapons” that are regulated by the NFA.

The hurdle to passage remains high. It takes 60 votes to clear the filibuster in the Senate. Right now, only 53 senators could be counted on to protect Second Amendment rights. If Sen. Murphy is willing to punish law-abiding American gun owners with thousands of dollars in punitive taxes to put Second Amendment rights beyond their financial means, he most assuredly would block HPA or SHORT Act in the Senate. That’s why gun owners must not risk their rights and  #GUNVOTE in elections.

 

Larry Keane is SVP for Government and Public Affairs, Assistant Secretary and General Counsel of the National Shooting Sports Foundation.