[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 79 (Wednesday, June 17, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H4640]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       FBI WANTS TO TAX AMERICANS

  (Mr. BARR of Georgia asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BARR of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, in just 5 short months, we will 
have an opportunity to witness real progress being made in our effort 
to keep guns out of the hands of criminals when the National Instant 
Check System, the so-called instant background check, goes into effect, 
pursuant to the previous Brady law.
  But be careful. I urge all Americans and my colleagues to be very 
careful about what the FBI is planning, and that is a stealth tax and a 
registry of gun ownership in America.
  The FBI is proposing to tax every single gun transfer in this country 
up to $30, despite the fact that Congress maintains, the last time I 
looked 2 minutes ago, the sole power to tax in this country. The FBI is 
proposing to use the National Instant Check System as a subterfuge for 
taxing the American people, and they are also proposing something that 
we have fought in this Congress and we ought to continue to resist, and 
that is a national registry of gun ownership in this country.
  Let us move forward with the national tax system, but let us resist 
vigorously, through H.R. 3949, this unconstitutional effort by the FBI 
to tax and to register firearms.

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