Taxes on Firearms

[der Teufel]

It seems some communities/politicians are promoting taxing firearms and ammunition to (what seems to me to be) exorbitantly prohibitive levels. In some instances the promoters of these ideas say it's to provide funds for public safety or victims' rights, in other cases it's clearly to make it more difficult to procure firearms & ammo.

Here's a link to an article referencing Florida's law allowing felons to regain voting rights. The Florida governor's position is that, in order to be permitted to vote, felons must complete any sentence AND pay any fines levied as a result of their conviction. Some civil rights groups argue that requiring payment to be allowed to vote amounts to an illegal poll tax.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/201 ... mer-felons

Poll taxes have clearly been labeled unconstitutional. That's not in dispute. But, by that reasoning shouldn't be illegal to tax firearms? After all, the SCOTUS has determined that ownership of firearms is an individual right protected by the constitution.

Just sayin' …

[BSHII]

There is already a federal excise tax on firearm sales, not to mention the NFA tax, plus many firearm sales are subject to state sales tax. I don’t know if the more broad-based excise tax has been challenged on constitutional grounds, but the NFA was held not to violate the Second Amendment (at least as applied in that case) in Miller v. United States. And, like the taxes being proposed on the left today, the $200 NFA tax was explicitly intended to make machine guns, short-barrel rifles and shotguns, and silencers prohibitively expensive.

One might hope that a conservative court would either overturn or narrow the effect of the short, poorly reasoned, and virtually uncontested decision in Miller. But I am afraid we are at least one conservative Supreme Court justice away from anything like that.

[imkopaka]

There is already a federal excise tax on firearm sales, not to mention the NFA tax, plus many firearm sales are subject to state sales tax. I don’t know if the more broad-based excise tax has been challenged on constitutional grounds, but the NFA was held not to violate the Second Amendment (at least as applied in that case) in Miller v. United States. And, like the taxes being proposed on the left today, the $200 NFA tax was explicitly intended to make machine guns, short-barrel rifles and shotguns, and silencers prohibitively expensive.

One might hope that a conservative court would either overturn or narrow the effect of the short, poorly reasoned, and virtually uncontested decision in Miller. But I am afraid we are at least one conservative Supreme Court justice away from anything like that.

Nice analysis

[J.R.@A&M]

Sen. Warren has such a proposal. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/elizabet ... 2733f0aaa4