The following bills raise taxes on guns, ammunition and suppressors.  Tell your senator and delegate to oppose these bills:

• HB 207, Delegate Keys-Gamarra, creates a $500 tax on suppressors.  The last case of a legally owned suppressor being used in a crime in Virginia was back in 2019 in a Virginia Beach “gun-free zone.” Suppressors don’t eliminate a gun’s sound.  They merely lower the sound to a more hearing-safe level.  They reduce a sound-level as loud as a jet plane taking off down to the sound-level of a jackhammer.  The reduced sound-level is more neighbor-friendly when target shooting. Suppressors also protect a hunter’s hearing.  Some suppressors are priced around $300, so this would be a 160% tax!  What exactly does such a high tax achieve, other than purposely pricing poor people out of the market, discouraging target shooters from reducing the sound-level heard by neighbors, or making it harder for a hunter to protect his hearing?
• SB 763, Senator Williams Graves, creates an 11% excise tax on firearms and ammunition manufacturers for gross sales into the Commonwealth.  Is there going to be an excise tax for book publishers, raising the cost for people who want to exercise their First Amendment rights? This is a “sin tax,” that affects a basic civil right.  Owning a gun is not a sin.  Guns are used to save hundreds of thousands of lives every year.
• HB 919, Delegate Lopez, creates an 11% excise tax on firearm dealers, firearm manufacturers, and ammunition vendors for gross retail sales of firearms and ammunition into the Commonwealth.  Is there going to be an excise tax for book publishers, raising the cost for people who want to exercise their First Amendment rights?  This is a “sin tax,” that affects a basic civil right.  Owning a gun is not a sin.  Guns are used to save hundreds of thousands of lives every year.
• HB 1094, Delegate Laufer, creates an 11% excise tax on firearms and ammunition manufacturers for gross sales into the Commonwealth.  Is there going to be an excise tax for book publishers, raising the cost for people who want to exercise their First Amendment rights? This is a “sin tax,” that affects a basic civil right.  Owning a gun is not a sin.  Guns are used to save hundreds of thousands of lives every year.