Chris Murphy Wants To Jack Up Taxes On Certain Accessories And Guns Sky High
Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut introduced an amendment Monday to an appropriations bill aimed at imposing a massive tax increase on suppressors and certain firearms.
The reconciliation bill signed into law by President Donald Trump in July contained provisions reducing taxes on suppressors, short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns and weapons described as “any other weapon” to $0 after the Senate parliamentarian removed language that removed those items from any coverage of the National Firearms Act (NFA) of 1934. Murphy’s amendment, known as SA 4159, would reinstate taxes and increase them to $4,709 per item. (RELATED: ISIS-Inspired Migrants Massacre People on Beach, So PM Announces Plan to Punish Country’s Gun Owners)
“This is actually not the first time that Senator Chris Murphy has proposed this tyrannical tax increase,” Gun Owners of America federal director Aidan Johnston told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “His goal with this amendment is to strip Americans of their ability to exercise their Second Amendment rights.”
WOW! The senator @ChrisMurphyCT proposed a 2,354% increase on the long-standing $200 NFA tax stamp.
This is an outrageous attack on 2A and shows what anti-gunners really think about gun rights.
This has only made the DOJ’s attacks on our One Big Beautiful Lawsuit even more sinister. pic.twitter.com/lCKDKVr4zR
– Gun Owners of America (@GunOwners) January 13, 2026
Johnston noted that when enacted in 1934, the NFA’s $200 tax was intended as a prohibitive financial barrier to machine gun ownership, adding that the figure Murphy chose adjusts the tax for inflation. Other pro-Second Amendment organizations also condemned Murphy’s proposed amendment.
“While this amendment is unlikely to pass in the current Congress, it makes one thing clear: Democrats see the NFA as an attractive target. It’s exactly what we’ve been warning about: They’ll never stop at banning guns outright; they’ll just try to tax them out of reach,” the National Gun Rights Association told DCNF. “As long as the NFA registration framework exists, we will continue to fight this same battle. The GOP should recognize this threat and end it at source by dismantling the NFA entirely.
“I can only hope that one day Senator Murphy will have as much contempt in his heart for criminals as he does for law-abiding gun owners who exercise their constitutional rights and for the gun industry that serves them,” said Mark Oliva of the National Shooting Sports Foundation. “Congress just acted on this issue by reducing the NFA tax to zero, and this is not the first time Senator Murphy has implemented this punitive and heinous tax, including firearm suppressors, which are essentially safety devices. Senator Murphy constantly calls for ‘common sense’ gun control. This tax proposal proves that what we really need in America is common sense senators.”
The National Rifle Association did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the DCNF.
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