Bills In Congress Would Prohibit Punitive State Excise Taxes on Guns, Parts, and Ammunition

The usual suspect states that have been the big losers at the Supreme Court over the years — and in Bruen in particular — got very creative in their responses to the federal courts ruling their hoplophobic laws unconstitutional. Most have thumbed their noses at the plain language of some of the opinions, designating large portions of cities as “sensitive areas” where carrying a gun is banned. Localities that have been forced to issue carry permits under Bruen have made the process insufferable. They’ve made the permits prohibitively expensive and drag their feet, making applicants wait a year or more for approval.

Some have also levied taxes on the purchase of guns and ammo. If you want to buy a firearm in California, you’ll pay the state an additional 11 percent for the privilege. Coloradans are about to get hit for 6.5 percent and a handful of other states are considering adding taxes of their own. And that’s all on top of the 10 or 11 percent gun owners already pay in Pittman-Robertson taxes to support conservation.

Now, bills in both the House and Senate would ban such state-level excise taxes and the NSSF is cheering the legislation . . .

NSSF, The Firearm Industry Trade Association, commends the introduction of the Freedom from Unfair Gun Taxes Act, introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by U.S. Reps. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Richard Hudson (R-N.C.) as H.R. 2442 and in the U.S. Senate by U.S. Sen. Jim Risch as S. 1169. The bicameral legislation would prohibit states from implementing excise taxes on firearms and ammunition to fund gun control programs.

“States that are hostile to the firearm industry and Second Amendment freedoms have abused their ability to levy taxes on the sale of firearms and ammunition as a ‘sin tax.’ Exercising a right – whether it is your First Amendment freedoms, Second Amendment or Fourth or Fifth Amendment freedoms – is not a sin,” said Lawrence G. Keane, NSSF Senior Vice President and General Counsel. “The idea that law-abiding citizens who responsibly exercise their Second Amendment rights must bear the cost to fund programs designed to denigrate that very right is anathema to free exercise of our rights. This is akin to the unconstitutional poll taxes that were struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1966. The lawmakers in the states that levy these taxes reveal their contempt for the Second Amendment and disdain for citizens who obey the law. NSSF is grateful to Congressmen Issa and Hudson, as well as Senator Risch, for their principled stand against these taxes that are an affront to the free exercise of Constitutionally-protected rights.”

Currently, California adds an 11 percent excise tax on firearms, firearm parts and ammunition. Colorado passed legislation to add a 6.5 percent excise tax on firearm and ammunition sales beginning April 1, 2025. Several other state legislatures – including Maryland, Massachusetts, New Mexico, New York and Washington have proposed similar “sin taxes” on law-abiding citizens seeking to lawfully exercise their Constitutionally-protected rights to keep and bear arms.

Firearm and ammunition manufacturers already pay a 10 and 11 percent federal excise tax on all firearms and ammunition, which funds wildlife conservation, habitat restoration, public land access, construction of public recreational marksmanship ranges and hunter education in all 50 states. This “user-pays” system has generated over $29 billion, when adjusted for inflation, for conservation through the Pittman-Robertson excise tax since its inception in 1937. The Pittman-Robertson excise tax enhances the exercise of the Second Amendment rights and enables passing on the American heritage of hunting and recreational sports shooting to the next generation.

These state excise taxes, however, are entirely different. The state excise taxes are a “sin tax” and the funds generated by the lawful sales to law-abiding citizens are used to fund gun control efforts designed to suppress the free exercise of Second Amendment rights. These taxes are punitive measures, intended to burden law-abiding gun and ammunition purchasers with a shame that is reserved for those criminals that misuse firearms. None of these taxes will be borne by those criminally misusing firearms, as even the Department of Justice (DOJ) Bureau of Justice Statistics reports show that 90 percent of criminals convicted of using a firearm in the commission of a crime admit they illegally acquired that firearm through illicit means.