Russell Kent wrote:

Archie wrote:

Are any of you aware of this going on????
SB-2099 will require us to put on our 2000 1040 federal tax return form
all guns that you own or have.It may require fingerprints and a tax of $
50.00 per gun.

  From the Senate web site:

Handgun Safety and Registration Act of 2000 - Amends chapter 53 (Machine Guns,
Destructive Devices, and Certain Other Firearms) of the Internal Revenue Code
to, among other things: (1) require the registration of handguns in the
National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record; (2) provide for the sharing
of registration information with Federal, State and local law enforcement
agencies; and (3) provide for the imposition of the five dollar transfer tax on
handguns and a $50 tax upon the making of each handgun.

So a $5 transfer tax and a $50 manufacturing tax, not a $50 property/possession
tax.

This bill was introduced on Feb. 24th.  The trick is that this bill will
not become public knowledge until 30 days  after it is voted into law.

Not exactly true.  From the same site:

PROGRAM OF PUBLIC AWARENESS- Within 60 days after the date of the enactment of
this Act, the Secretary of the Treasury shall commence a program to broaden
public awareness of the handgun registration requirements under the Internal
Revenue Code of 1986, as amended by this section. Such program may include
voluntary cooperative efforts with Federal, State, and local law enforcement
agencies and public service announcements as deemed appropriate by the
Secretary.

The bill is public now.  Within 60 days of its (hopefully very unlikely)
passage, the Secretary of the Treasury is supposed to start a publicity
campaign about the law (which it would be at that time).

This bill is an amendment to the Internal Revenue Act of 1986. This
means that the Finance Committee can pass this bill without the Senate
voting on it at all.

False. The Senate Finance Committee can only refer the Bill back to the Senate
floor, where it must be voted upon (perhaps by voice vote or "acclaim"),
whereupon it enters into conference committee with the House (assuming that a
similar but not identical bill has passed the House).  Then the 2 unified bills
come back to the House and Senate, are re-voted upon, and then the bill is sent
to the President for signature or veto.

Honestly, I sometimes wonder if I am the only person to have paid attention in
the Politics course. :-)

I think that this is merely a publicity stunt by a few bleeding heart liberals:

Sen. Jack Reed (Sponsor), D-Rhode Island
Sen. Frank Lautenburg (Co-sponsor), D-New Jersey
Sen. Charles Schumer (Co-sponsor), D-New York

But I *do* encourage you to let your Senators know that you are opposed to this
bill (assuming you are opposed to it).

But this is the Rotary Engine mailing list, so I will speak no more of this
here.

Russell Kent