Claim:   A pending Senate bill would require that all gun owners list their guns on federal income tax returns.

Status:   Sort of.

Example:   [Collected on the Internet, 2000]

Senate Bill SB-2099 will require us to put on our 2000 1040 federal tax form all guns that you have or own. It may require fingerprints and a tax of $50 per gun. This bill was introduced on Feb. 24. This bill will become public knowledge 30 days after it is voted into law. This is an amendment to the Internal Revenue Act of 1986. This means that the Finance Committee can pass this without the Senate voting on it at all. The full text of the proposed amendment is on the U.S. Senate homepage, http://www.senate.gov. You can find the bill by doing a search by the bill number, SB-2099. You know who to call; I strongly suggest you do. Please send a copy of this e-mail to every gun owner you know to help STOP this bill!!

Origins:   Most e-mailed warnings about pending legislation are outright hoaxes, woefully out-of-date alerts, or grossly distorted versions of the truth. In this case the warning is pretty close to the mark, although some of the claims in the text are exaggerated.

The issue is Senate Bill 2099, introduced in February by Senator Jack Reed, a Democrat from Rhode Island. S. 2099 is titled the "Handgun Safety and Registration Act of 2000" and seeks "to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to require the registration of handguns, and for other purposes." What, exactly does this entail?

The National Firearms Act of 1934 established (among other things) a tax on both the manufacture and the transfer of firearms, required that each person who transfers a firearm file an application (complete with photograph and fingerprints) with the internal revenue authorities, and authorized the creation of "a central registry of all firearms in the United States which are not in the possession or under the control of the United States." However, the definition of "firearm" used by the 1934 act did not include standard rifles, shotguns, or handguns. It applied only to specialized weapons such as short-barrelled rifles and shotguns, machine guns, silencers, and other "destructive devices" (e.g., grenades, bombs, rockets, missiles, mines). S. 2099 would expand the definition of "firearm" to include handguns, thus subjecting them to these requirements as well.

The upshot of the Handgun Safety and Registration Act, if passed, would be the imposition of a $50 tax on the manufacture of all handguns, the requirement that all gun owners register their handguns within one year of the Act's passage, and the provision that registration information be made available to federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies. In practical terms, every handgun owner would have to obtain a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms registration form and an FBI fingerprint form, then complete and submit both forms (along with a 2x2 of himself and a $5 payment) to the BATF.

The intent of this bill to effect nationwide registration of handguns is unmistakable. As stated in a press release about Senator Reed's bill:

The bill would require registration of all handguns, including those currently in private possession, and would make it a felony for any person to transfer a handgun to another individual without prior law enforcement approval. Background checks would be performed on all primary and secondary transfers of handguns, including retail sales, gun shows, Internet sales and all private sales.

The claims that this bill can be passed into law without Congress voting upon it and that it will "require us to put on our federal tax form all guns that you have or own" are not true, and the $50 tax mentioned applies to gun manufacturers, not gun owners. The Handgun Safety and Registration Act, like any other Congressional bill, would have to be passed by both houses of Congress and signed by the President (or passed again over his veto) in order to become law. A national gun registration database is still a sufficiently controversial issue that this bill will probably die in the Finance Committee without ever being voted upon, and even Senator Reed himself said he is not optimistic about its chances of success:

"I am under no illusion," Reed stated, "that this legislation will be approved by this Congress or next Congress . . . But we must begin the process to create a law that Americans overwhelmingly believe is necessary."

Of course, if you feel strongly enough about this bill that you want to take affirmative action to see it defeated (or passed), be sure to contact your Congressional representatives and make your views known.

Additional information:

Misleading E-mail   (gunregistration.org)

Last updated:   4 December 2007

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