David Hogg Pushes Federal Tax on Firearm Sales

Student gun control activist David Hogg is pushing to secure a federal tax on firearm sales.

He wants to use the funds produced by the tax to pay for “gun violence research”:

In other words, he wants to tax a constitutional, God-given right–thereby raising gun prices for law-abiding citizens–in order to pay for research into the ways criminals misuse guns.

The NRA-ILA reports that Hogg’s idea is at least 100 years old, as it was pushed via the the Firearms and Ammunition Excise Tax in 1917. The difference? That tax was pushed, and implemented, as a way to fund pro-hunting causes, not anti-Second Amendment campaigns.

Certain cities–Chicago, Seattle, and Detroit–have adopted a tax on guns and/or ammunition for the very purposes espoused by Hogg. Ironically, Chicago homicides rose once the tax was in place, and Fox News reports that Seattle saw violence rise after their tax was passed. Detroit’s tax was passed too recently to see the results, but since gang members and street criminals do not buy their guns at retail, where the tax is exacted, there is no reason to think the Motor City’s tax will fare better than in Chicago or Seattle.

One thing a gun violence tax does do is make the cost of self-defense firearms prohibitive for poorer citizens in Democrat-controlled cities. And such citizens often live in neighborhoods where they may need a gun simply to survive.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News, the host of the Breitbart podcast Bullets with AWR Hawkins, and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.