In 1993 Senate testimony Hillary Clinton endorsed a new national 25% retail sales tax on guns. Newly released footage shows her nodding fiercely as gun owners and dealers are described as “purveyors of violence”
WASHINGTON, D.C. – In passionate Senate testimony on Sept. 30, 1993, Hillary Clinton endorsed a new national 25% retail sales tax on guns. Today, Americans for Tax Reform has released newly discovered footage of Clinton’s visceral facial expressions which shows her nodding fiercely as she endorses the gun tax and as gun owners and dealers are described as “purveyors of violence.”
Clinton concluded her gun tax endorsement by saying, “I am speaking personally, but I feel very strongly about that.”
The newly released footage is available here and at ATR’s www.HighTaxHillary.com
“Hillary has made it perfectly clear to the millions of gun owners in the United States: she doesn’t like us, she doesn’t trust us and she wants us to go away,” said Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform. “The Second Amendment makes it difficult to legally ban guns, but Hillary has led the way to explaining you can achieve the same thing with high taxes.”
In advance of Tuesday’s New York primary, Clinton is relentlessly attacking Bernie Sanders for his 1990s gun votes, bragging that she is to the left of Sanders on gun control. She has yet to face any recent media questioning of her gun tax endorsement, which was reported at the time by the Associated Press, New York Times, Washington Post, and NBC News.
As reported by the AP on Oct. 1, 1993:
Sen. Bill Bradley, D-N.J., picked up Mrs. Clinton’s support for his idea of slapping stiff taxes on ”purveyors of violence:” a 25 percent sales tax on guns and $2,500 license fees for gun dealers.
”Speaking personally … I’m all for that,” said the first lady. But she stressed she was just speaking for herself.
”Well, let me say that there is no more important personal endorsement in the country today, and I thank you very much,” said a pleased-as-punch Bradley.
Here’s the Washington Post on Oct. 1, 1993:
“I’m all for it,” she declared in a response to a suggestion by Sen. Bill Bradley (D-N.J.) that the Congress should impose a 25 percent sales tax on handguns to “tax directly the purveyors of violence.”
On Sept. 30, 1993, NBC Nightly News reported the incident as follows:
Others urge a hefty sales tax on guns, and much higher fees for gun dealers. Today, they got a powerful ally.
Ms. HILLARY CLINTON: I’m all for that. I just don’t know what else we’re going to do to try to figure out how to get some handle on this violence.
The Bill Clinton White House made it clear that Hillary’s 25 percent gun tax endorsement was hers and hers alone, as shown by the Oct. 1, 1993 White House press briefing transcript:
Q: “Do you know if the President supports the First Lady’s endorsement of an idea yesterday by Senator Bradley that there be a 25 percent tax on the sale of guns in America?”
WH Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers: “Well, as you know, she was expressing her opinion.”
Clinton’s gun tax endorsement is an especially potent threat considering the recent imposition of gun taxes in Seattle and the U.S. territory of the Northern Marianas Islands.
Seattle’s $25 per gun sales tax – as well as a two to five cent tax per round of ammunition — went into effect on Jan. 1, 2016 and has already forced one gun dealer out of the city. This week, the Northern Marianas enacted a $1,000 per gun tax.
“Hillary and the Left are now seeking to tax guns out of existence,” said Norquist.
Clinton and Sanders face off in a debate tonight hosted by CNN at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. The state of New York is home to a proud history of gun manufacturing and according to a new report from the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the firearms and ammunition industry employs 7,673 workers in the state.