California’s Democrat lawmakers are pushing a tax on the sale of handguns and semiautomatic rifles to generate revenue for a program that funds gun control.
The tax is contained in Assembly Bill 18, sponsored by Assemblyman Marc Levine (D-CA-10).

The language of AB-18 explains that the Democrats’ goal is “an excise tax on the sales of handguns and semiautomatic rifles,” to in turn give the resulting revenue to the California Violence Intervention and Prevention Grant Program (CalVIP).

On July 5, 2017, Highland News reported CalVIP is as a funding program lauded by Gabby Giffords’s gun control group. And on June 29, 2017, FilAmStar reported Giffords’ gratitude toward Gov. Jerry Brown (D) for allowing CalVIP funding to be used for gun control efforts in the state.

The bottom line — handguns and semiautomatic rifles would be taxed to fund a program which, in turn, funds gun control efforts. And the language of AB-18 admits as much by making clear that that the failure of California’s extant gun controls justifies the passage of more gun laws and policies: