The Second Amendment granted the right to keep and bear arms, and nowhere is mentioned a state excise tax that proponents clearly intended to wield to suppress gun rights.
However, that is the case in California, where lawmakers recently enacted an 11% burden on all gross receipts of guns and ammunition. While this excise tax is not directly collected from the purchaser, it is evident that the state mandate implemented on sellers is passed directly along to the helpless consumer.
Now, there is a strong legal challenge mounted against the state’s arbitrary tax.
The National Rifle Association (NRA), in conjunction with the Second Amendment Foundation, the Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) and the California Rifle and Pistol Association, filed suit opposing the Golden State’s latest overreach to suppress gun rights.
Two private citizens, Danielle Jaymes and Joshuah Gerken, purchased a weapon and ammunition on July 1, the day the new law took effect. As intended, their total purchase prices swelled 11%.
FPC President Brandon Combs announced in a news release that the organization is standing up for the rights of ordinary law-abiding citizens against the state’s enormous power, which is being turned against them.
Combs described the “unconstitutional and immoral gun tax” as a government action “that targets people and rights hated by tyrants.” He added, “Thankfully, the Constitution forbids California’s political warfare scheme. FPC and our allies are committed to restoring the right to keep and bear arms in California and throughout the United States.”
Randy Kozuch is the Executive Director of the NRA Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA). He explained the group’s motivation in bringing a lawsuit against California.
“The National Rifle Association has a record of challenging laws that needlessly abridge the rights of law-abiding Americans. California’s firearms excise tax is a blatant and egregious attack on the rights of Californians and a calculated move to dismantle the Second Amendment.”
The lawsuit’s wording warns explicitly about the misuse of the power to tax by a state that is clearly bent on destroying gun rights.
“Here, California effectively seeks the power to destroy the exercise of a constitutional right by singling it out for special taxation. 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.”
The plaintiffs further note that there is no historical precedent from the Founding Era for such a tax. The U.S. Supreme Court mandated this stipulation in 2022’s Bruen decision, which established that modern gun control efforts must be rooted in the nation’s history and tradition of firearm regulation.
The complaint correctly contends, “California’s 11% excise tax on firearms and ammunition infringes Plaintiffs’ rights under the Second Amendment because it implicates conduct protected by the Second Amendment’s plain text — acquiring firearms and ammunition — and is not part of this Nation’s history of gun regulation. Defendant will be unable to present widespread, relevantly similar analogues from the Founding Era to support this tax.”
The case, Jaymes v. Maduros, was filed directly against the Director of the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration, Nicolas Maduro.
It represents the latest legal challenge against a state that intends to rewrite the Bill of Rights to the detriment of its good citizens.
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