Gun groups sue California for new tax on gun sales
- A new California law imposes an 11% tax on all firearms, ammunitions sales
- Gun rights advocates say the tax is a violation of the 2nd Amendment
- Governor's office: "This is a modest investment in gun violence prevention"
Guns for sale are displayed at Maxon Shooter’s Supplies in Des Plaines, Ill., Tuesday, June 25, 2024. A new national divide is emerging among states over whether to track sales by gun stores. A California law taking effect Monday will require credit card networks to provide banks with special retail codes to assign to gun stores. By contrast, new laws taking effect in Georgia, Iowa, Tennessee and Wyoming will prohibit the use of special gun shop codes in financial transactions. A total of 17 states have passed some sort of limit on category codes for gun retailers, while California has been joined by Colorado and New York. (AP Photo/Teresa Crawford)
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(NewsNation) — Gun rights advocates filed a lawsuit against a new California law that adds an 11% tax on firearm sales to fund gun violence prevention programs.
Enacted in 2023, California Assembly Bill 28 imposed the additional tax on gross receipts from all retail sales of guns, gun parts and ammunition. The money from this tax was then funneled into a number of gun safety initiatives, including school safety programs, firearm relinquishment grant programs, counseling for victims of mass shootings and grant programs for victims of gun violence.
The Firearms Policy Coalition said it filed the complaint on its members’ behalf in San Diego County Superior Court. Other plaintiffs in the suit included the National Rifle Association, the California Rifle & Pistol Association and the Second Amendment Foundation.
The complaint says the excise tax is a violation of the 2nd Amendment because it is a special tax on gun owners, saying the U.S. Supreme Court has “repeatedly held that constitutional rights cannot be singled out for special taxation.”
“Here, California effectively seeks the power to destroy the exercise of a constitutional right by singling it out for special taxation,” the complaint reads. “If this tax is permitted, there is nothing stopping California from imposing a 50% or even 100% tax on a constitutional right it disfavors — whether it be the right to keep and bear arms, the right to free exercise of religion, or any other right.”
However, proponents of the tax say the price far outweighs the cost of gun violence.
“This is a modest investment in gun violence prevention programs that are proven to work,” Daniel Villaseñor, spokesman for the governor’s office said. “There’s a reason California is ranked the No. 1 state for gun safety — and we won’t back down from defending common sense policies like this that help save lives.”