Press Release
Posted:
Washington – Today, Gun Violence Prevention Task Force Chairman Rep. Mike Thompson (CA-04) led a letter with 50 Members of Congress in the Gun Violence Prevention Task Force to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo to ensure that gun owners are not discouraged from purchasing gun safes because of high tariffs.
“Without affordable safe storage options, we will see more deadly firearm accidents involving kids, more suicides, and more mass shootings where kids were able to access unsecured firearms,” said Thompson. “Responsible gun owners know that storing their guns in a gun safe is the right thing to do, and the letter from Gun Violence Prevention Task Force helps keep gun safes more affordable."
When the Administration placed tariffs on metal lockers from China, they excluded gun safes from retaliatory tariffs because of the public health benefits of this product. When the Commerce Department implemented the tariffs, they placed tariffs on several common gun safes which should have been excluded from tariffs. These tariffs threatened to increase prices on common models of gun safes and discourage gun owners from responsibly storing their firearms.
The letter was endorsed by March for Our Lives, a national gun violence prevention advocacy organization.
According to Everytown, last year there were 355 unintentional shootings by children in the United States, resulting in 158 fatalities and 212 injuries.
The letter was signed by Reps. Beatty, Beyer, Brown, Carbajal, Casten, Clarke, Cleaver, Courtney, Crow, Davis, Dean, DeLauro, DeSaulnier, Dingell, Espaillat, Foushee, Frost, Sylvia Garcia, Goldman, Hayes, Jackson Lee, Jacobs, Jayapal, Johnson, Kelly, Krishnamoorthi, Barbara Lee, Matsui, McBath, McClellan, Meng, Morelle, Moulton, Nadler, Nickel, Panetta, Pettersen, Quigley, Sánchez, Schakowsky, Schneider, Bobby Scott, Sherrill, Soto, Stevens, Swalwell, Tlaib, Watson Coleman, Williams, and Wilson.
The full letter can be found here and the text is below:
Dear Secretary Raimondo,
As Members of the Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, it has come to our attention that some imported gun safes are unintentionally being subjected to trade duties of almost 350 percent. These tariffs run counter to the Administration’s strong support for gun violence prevention efforts including the safe storage of firearms, and statements by both the Department of Commerce and the International Trade Commission (ITC) that the gun safes would be excluded from countervailing duties.
Gun safes are a critically important tool for Americans to keep guns out of the reach of children and other unauthorized users and it has been proven that safe storage of weapons decreases the likelihood of suicide, homicide and accidental injury or death. The decision to exclude gun safes from the Metal Lockers from China Countervailing Duties case was the right decision to ensure that high quality gun safes should be available at reasonable prices to all American consumers. Unfortunately, the high cost of these duties puts access to this critical gun violence prevention tool at risk.
We are writing to ask for your urgent approval of the Changed Circumstances Review request submitted by Tractor Supply Company. As you know, gun safes were not the intended target by either Commerce or the ITC as part of the metal lockers investigations. In fact, U.S. metal lockers companies proposed an exclusion for gun safes that Commerce understood would cover gun safes generally and the ITC explicitly determined that gun safes were outside the scope of the proceedings.
Nonetheless, U.S. Customs and Border Protection has broadly enforced tariffs on imported gun safes. We understand Commerce is allowed at least 90 days for this review and we hope this can be completed as soon as is feasible.
We believe that subjecting gun safes to duties runs counter to this Administration’s stated goal of eliminating gun violence throughout the United States. Thank you for your consideration and expedited review.