“The power to tax is the power to destroy.”

-John Marshall, 4th Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court

U.S. Senator and Democratic presidential contender Liz Warren wants to tax us gun owners back to the Stone Age, as a part of her radical gun control agenda, revealed this weekend.

If elected, Warren promises to raise taxes on firearms and ammo purchases by 30% and 50%, respectively. That’s on top of her plan for federal licensing for gun ownership — presumably with a federal database of who owns what — expanded background checks, and a renewed ban on “assault-style” weapons.

Warren revealed her plans at the Gun Safety Forum in Des Moines, Iowa, on Saturday, an event organized by Michael Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety. She also posted on Medium:

“The next President has a moral obligation to use whatever executive authority she has to address the gun crisis, but it is obvious that executive action is not enough. Durable reform requires legislation — but right now legislation is impossible. Why? A virulent mix of corruption and abuse of power.”

What’s she saying here? That she intends to go after the NRA and other lobby groups’ “stranglehold on Congress” with new anti-corruption legislation. “Anti-corruption” in this case means “using the law to silence dissent.” Because you can’t gut the Second Amendment without gutting the First — and vice-versa. Imagine the howls, under the first Republican president following a Liz administration, when progressive groups learn that Warren has neutered their First Amendment rights, too.

Payback’s a… you know.

ASIDE: How about some legislation preventing presidential longshots from attempting to corrupt the Bill of Rights? Maybe a 50% tax on proposals to subvert Constitutional protections? Hey, I’m just trying to save lives here.

Never mind that illegal gun transitions won’t be subject to Warren’s punitive taxes, or that millions of us spent the Obama years stockpiling ammo. And, oh, by the way, all my firearms and ammo were lost in a tragic fishing accident, and I was too drunk at the time to remember which lake.

Warren’s gun control push is the center of her plan to reduce gun deaths by 80%, down from around 40,000 annually. According to the most recent figures I could find, nearly two-thirds of all gun deaths are suicides. So it might seem that if your real goal was to reduce gun deaths, you’d launch some sort of national suicide prevention program rather than tax the bejeebus out of gun owners and all the rest. Progressive young adult infotainment site Vox says Warren’s goal is likely “downright impossible.” And even Bloomberg’s namesake publication admits that Democrats “may only manage timid steps,” and quotes law professor Jonathan Adler saying, “Most of what I’ve seen proposed is either meaningless, or it would not be lawful without legislative support.”

Put all that together, and it’s safe to assume that Warren’s real goal isn’t the reduction of gun violence, but a reduction in (and punishment of) gun owners.