There was a bill introduced into the Senate in 2000 that would have amended the Internal Revenue Code and therefore the National Firearms Act of 1934 to include handguns. The 1934 NFA is the legislation that created the mandate for tracking and taxing the manufacture and transfer of class III firearms and destructive devices. If made into law, handgun owners would fall under the same laws that owners of fully automatic weapons and firearms with silencers have to follow. It would have been the fear of national gun registration becoming a reality. Fortunately this legislation never had a prayer of passing nine years ago.

The original bill was S. 2099 (not SB-2099) and there are slightly different versions bouncing around the internet. In some versions the IRS would have a form that accompanied the 1040 or there would be a section of the 1040 that would require all gun information. A gun tax (usually $50 per gun) is mentioned. It is stated that either the senate does not have to vote on it or, it will be voted on while everyone is worried about health care and announced thirty days after passage. It may appear in a form that combines it with the very real and current H.R. 45; the Blair Holt's Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act of 2009.

Most of these allegations are incorrect about the real legislation from nine years ago. IRS reporting on income tax forms was never involved. The tax was on the manufacturing or transfer of a gun not an annual tax. It amends the tax code of 1986 that is already in place for destructive devices (class-III weapons). Federal, state and local law enforcement would be involved but only to share registration information. These are the same rules that every owner of a class-III weapon has to follow now. Furthermore, it only involved handguns, not all guns.

The bill didn’t have a chance and everyone knew it, even the man that introduced it. Read more

Source: Baltimore Hunting & Fishing Examiner