By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
A controversial House Bill in Virginia has reportedly been “ruled out for now” after the legislation didn’t make the “crossover” deadline, according to WSET News.
House Bill 919 would have added an 11 percent tax on the sale of firearms and ammunition in the Commonwealth.
The legislation was patterned after a similar measure in California which was adopted two years ago, and promptly challenged in court by four gun rights organizations and two individuals. That case is known as Jaymes v. Maduros.
California says it’s tax is no different than the excise tax levied on firearms and ammunition manufacturers under the 1937 Pittman-Robertson program, which is a dedicated fund administered by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service that provides support to state fish and wildlife agencies for wildlife preservation. But California says its money goes to support “gun violence prevention” efforts in the state.
The California lawsuit involves the Second Amendment Foundation, National Rifle Association, Firearms Policy Coalition and California Rifle & Pistol Association. Critics of the California law call it a “sin tax” or liken it to a “poll tax.”
As noted in the original complaint at the time the lawsuit was filed in state Superior Court, “the United States Supreme Court has repeatedly held that constitutional rights cannot be singled out for special taxation…The excise tax plainly singles out Second Amendment rights for disfavored treatment. Because the Second Amendment is “not ‘a second-class right, subject to an entirely different body of rules than the other Bill of Rights guarantees…these precedents apply with equal force to California’s excise tax.”
Meanwhile, a similar proposal in Washington State appears to be dead (House Bill 1386), and another bill aimed at limiting firearm and ammunition purchases (House Bill 1132). A third onerous bill (House Bill 2456), which would have jacked up the price of a concealed pistol license by $100, also failed to meet the cutoff.
On the other hand, Washington lawmakers are still pushing Senate Bill 5098, which would expand so-called “gun-free zones,” although the current legislation has an exemption for anyone with a valid concealed pistol license.
Another bill which seeks to essentially muzzle elected county sheriffs—Senate Bill 5974—is also still alive. The reason this bill is important to gun owners in the state is because county sheriffs have, in the past, refused to enforce gun control laws they determine are unconstitutional. As earlier reported, the billionaire-backed Alliance for Gun Responsibility supports the measure because of lawman resistance to gun control laws it has pushed in the past.
