Dem Takes Another Shot at $2K Tax Credit for Turning in Assault Weapons

Monica Sanchez | April 6, 2015
DONATE
Font Size

Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) announced in a press release on Monday that the Support Assault Firearm Elimination and Education of our (SAFER) Streets Act will be reintroduced to Congress next week. If the bill is made into law, the government would pay gun owners to voluntarily turn in their assault weapons to local law enforcement.

The assault weapons legislation would not force gun owners to hand over their firearms, but would encourage them to do so freely by way of a $2,000 refundable tax credit.

“This bill would get more assault weapons off the streets,” DeLauro asserted.

“Just days after the Newtown tragedy," she said, "President Obama asked ‘Are we doing enough to protect our children?’ And he admitted the answer is no. That must change." 

“Assault weapons are not about hunting, or even self-defense," DeLauro argued. 

"There is no reason on Earth, other than to kill as many people as possible in as short a time as possible, that anyone needs a gun designed for a battlefield."

The SAFER Streets Act "comes in response to the horrific mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., DeLauro’s home state, in December 2012," reports The Hill.

"DeLauro originally introduced the bill in January 2013, just one month after the Newtown shooting, but the legislation fell short in the Republican-controlled House."

Rep. DeLauro and her fellow Democrats sponsoring the bill support a comprehensive ban on assault weapons, but achieving such legislation would be far-fetched with a now Republican-controlled Congress. 

donate