I’ve never been a fan of any form of sin taxes, so called because our august lawmakers deem a particular behavior a vice and then try to ramp up the taxes on its perpetrators to supposedly pay for the cost of the behavior on society at large, but the idea that law-abiding, gun-owning citizens need to pay for the sins of what are overwhelmingly not law-abiding and probably not tax-paying criminals… really just takes the cake of stupid.

But no way is that stopping a couple of Congressional Democrats from fixing to propose even steeper taxes on the lawful purchasers of handguns and ammunition and supposedly funnel the revenue to ‘gun violence prevention.’ Via Fox News:

Called the “Gun Violence Prevention and Safe Communities Act,” the bill sponsored by William Pascrell, D-N.J., and Danny Davis, D-Ill., would nearly double the current 11 percent tax on handguns, while raising the levy on bullets and cartridges from 11 percent to 50 percent. …

The lawmakers say the bill would generate $600 million per year, which would be used to fund law-enforcement and gun violence prevention. …

The bill would also increase the transfer tax on all weapons (except antique guns) covered under the National Firearms Act (which excludes most common guns) from $200 to $500 and index to inflation and increase the transfer tax for any other weapon from $5 to $100. …

“This legislation is a pro-active approach to reducing gun violence by using proven preventive programs which have been starved for funds until now,” Davis said. “As part of a comprehensive, multidimensional strategy to reduce gun violence, this legislation closes major loopholes in tax law and lays out an equitable, long term, sustainable strategy to provide the requisite resources.”

Yes, by all means, let’s add yet another regressive barrier to home- and self-defense, so that even more people will be completely dependent on the police for protection, in order to help offset the costs of law enforcement! …Anyone? Anyone?

It’s no surprise that Davis represents a portion of Chicago, whose own “long term, sustainable strategy to provide the requisite resources” for violence prevention has been a direct cause of skyrocketing murder rates but still seems to insist for more gun control as the answer.