General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Maybe a dumb question on Assault rifles [View all]Crepuscular
(1,057 posts)Not sure how many are aware of this but since 1937 there has been an 11% Federal Excise tax on guns and ammunition, known as the Pittmann Roberston tax, named after the legislators who sponsored the act which imposed it.
It has generated hundreds of millions of dollars, which are then re-distributed back to the states for conservation funding.
So an ammunition tax is certainly not an impossibility. If it gets too high, then I suspect it would be challenged under 2nd amendment grounds.
Btw, there is nothing unique or special about the cartridges commonly used in assault style weapons, the same cartridges are used in bolt and pump action rifles or in a variety of pistols.
Probably 95% of the mass shootings that have occurred in the last decade or so, could have been just as easily accomplished with non-semi-automatic weapons, with technology that dates back almost 150 years. It is wishful thinking to assume that banning certain weapons will have any kind of a tangible impact on the violence that is becoming all too common. Better mental health services, legalizing and de-criminalizing some drugs and addressing the systemic social and economic issues that have created gang cultures in urban areas, would be much more likely to have transformational impacts in the long run.