Last week, I discussed the proposed changes to NFA rules. Since then, people have been yammering at me that the proposal will also raise fees and add taxes on other firearms. Here’s one cheery example:
King Obama, his court jester Eric Holder and their lawless DOJ created and sent this Executive Ordered Directive to the ATF. (…) The Transfer & Manufacture Stamp Taxes are being raised from $200 per item to $500 per item, AOW’s will go from $5 to $200. This is most likely because the NFA Branch of the ATF will be receiving so many fewer applications, and just an excuse in general to increase tax revenue per item.
There are so many things wrong with that I don’t know where to begin. There is no executive order. I have no idea what an “ordered directive” is, either.
So I went back and pored over the petition a second time. It’s written in eyeball-scouring, triple-column, single-spaced pages. Yeah, thanks for that, guys.
Turns out, it’s not there. It’s actually part of H.R. 3018, also known as the Gun Violence Prevention and Safe Communities Act of 2013. The bill seeks to raise existing excise taxes on firearms (including receivers) to 20% and the tax on ammunition to 50%. It also contains provisions for raising the fees on NFA transfers and manufacture.
Sobering as it sounds, it’s dead on arrival. It has one cosponsor, and neither he or the sponsor are part of the usual gaggle of predatory zealots. Furthermore, it seeks to alter and reallocate tax revenue collected under the Pittman-Robertson Act, and that’s not going to fly with anybody.
If you’re not familiar with the Act, there’s a good history here. If you’ve bought guns, ammunition, or archery supplies since 1937, you have been paying an 11% excise tax. That money goes into a fund maintained by the Department of the Interior, who then parcels it out to the states for the purposes of wildlife conservation, related research, and hunter safety training. It can’t be used for anything outside the original purpose.
Sounds like a lot of money, right? After all, what’s 11% of a whole bunch? Around $522 million in 2013 alone. It’s done inestimable good, and the benefit of the Act is one thing on which conservationists, environmentalists, and the nefarious gun lobby all agree.
H.R. 3018 proposes to dole all that money out to other things, and that’s why it’s going to fail. If you scroll down to section 2(c) and add up the percentages, you’ll notice that number comes out to an even 100. This is a baldfaced attempt to gut the Act, and they’ll meet opposition from all quarters on it.
Hopefully, I’ve laid a few fears to rest, and now people can get on with obsessing over implausible and surreal things I might at least find morbidly amusing.