House Dem Wants to Tax Assault Weapons 1,000% and It Could Pass Without GOP Votes

In response to a recent string of mass shootings, one House Democrat is drafting a bill designed to severely restrict access to assault weapons.

Rep. Donald Beyer (D-Va.), who sits on the House Ways and Means Committee, is looking to put a 1,000% excise tax on AR-15-type rifles as a means of making them less affordable to the public.

“What it’s intended to do is provide another creative pathway to actually make some sensible gun control happen,” Beyer told Business Insider. “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.”

With the affected guns ranging in price from $500 to $2000, the tax could add as much as $20,000 to the final sale price of the weapons. While bullets would not be taxed at the high rate, high-capacity magazines would be.

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The details of the legislation are not yet final. Beyer insists that law enforcement agencies and the military would be exempt from the tax, as would existing owners. One can only imagine the surge in sales of the weapons should this legislation make it through. And while the proposal seems absurd on its face, that doesn’t mean it’s doomed to fail; Beyer is looking to use the reconciliation process to bypass a filibuster in the Senate.