While well over half of the states in the country have secured Second Amendment rights for their residents by passing laws such as constitutional carry, others are moving in the opposite direction.
Democrats in the state of Colorado are pushing through a number of bills to restrict further gun ownership in the state, including a ban on “assault weapons,” as well as an 11% excise tax on guns and ammunition.
HB24-1292 – cast as a bill to Prohibit Certain Weapons Used in Mass Shootings – seeks to define the term “assault weapon” using both extremely broad descriptors and calling out specific brands and manufacturer models which would include “80-90% of semi-automatic firearms popular today, including handguns and shotguns” according to Colorado firearms instructor Ava Flanell in Fox News Digital. The bill is up Monday for a second reading in the Colorado House of Representatives.
HB24-1349 – the Firearms & Ammunition Excise Tax would “levy an excise tax on firearms dealers, firearms manufacturers, and ammunition vendors at the rate of 11% of the gross taxable sales from the retail sale of any firearm, firearm precursor part, or ammunition in this state and allows the state to collect and spend all revenue generated by the tax notwithstanding any limitations in section 20 of article X of the state constitution or any other provision of law. Such retail sales to peace officers and law enforcement agencies are exempt from the excise tax. In addition, such retail sales made during any month are exempt from the excise tax if the total amount of gross taxable sales made by the firearms dealer, firearms manufacturer, or ammunition vendor during the month are less than $2,000.”
This bill was introduced in late February and is being heard Monday in the House Finance Committee.
Additional financial burdens on gun owners have been rejected this year in other states. Last month, Governor Glenn Youngkin of Virginia vetoed over 30 gun control bills sent his way by the Democrat-controlled General Assembly. Among those was a bill that would have required the purchase of a “safe-storage” device for ones firearm. The Governor rejected that legislation on the premise that the “poorest Virginians” would be priced “out of the market for a fundamental right.”
