A Parkland, Fla., gun control activist has been calling for a tax on gun sales, putting forth the notion as a new idea. News flash, David Hogg: The Firearms and Ammunition Excise Tax (FAET) beat you to the punch by about a century.
Hogg, who has made a name for himself on social media after surviving the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High, has not been shy about using Twitter to push for a federal tax on gun sales. One of his latest tweets says: “Congress ought to create a federal tax on gun sales to fund gun violence research.”
Well, using the word “create” would imply that no such thing currently exists. But guess what? The FAET has been around since 1919, and it calls for a 10 percent tax on the sales of handguns and an 11 percent fee on the sale of ammunition, long guns and archery equipment. And the money, in conjunction with the Pittman-Robertson Act, is earmarked for wildlife conservation efforts.
So before you start calling for the “creation” of something, David, maybe you ought to do some research into whether the idea already exists.
