A bill currently pending in the Kansas Senate would remove state taxes on the sale of firearms, ammunition, firearm accessories, safes, and “firearm safety devices”; essentially a permanent and year-round “tax holiday” as opposed to a tax-free weekend or even a tax-free season that has been adopted in other states.
SB 209 has drawn opposition from the League of Kansas Municipalities and the Kansas Association of Counties, who complain that the elimination of those taxes could hurt city and county budgets. That may very well be true, but that doesn’t mean that taxing the exercise of a fundamental right is appropriate. While local and county governments’ main issue is with a loss of tax revenue, though, one local gun control activist is taking issue with the measure for a different reason.
Carla Oppenheimer, a private citizen who wrote to the Senate tax committee in opposition to the bill, said she feared gun owners would take advantage of the tax break to buy more firearms and ammo instead of improving home safety by investing in quality gun safes. She said the bill “undermines the very safety goal the proposal appears to promote.”
“Instead, it provides a broad tax exemption that primarily benefits the firearms industry while weakening the intended safety incentive,” she said.
She suggested in its place a tax relief policy limited to gun safes and secure storage devices, which would “directly prioritize secure storage practices and send a strong message that responsible gun ownership includes protecting children, families and communities from preventable harm.”
The bill doesn’t primarily benefit the firearms industry. It benefits its customers. The price of ammunition has spiked over the past few weeks, and anything to make it more affordable would we welcomed by most gun owners.
More importantly, though, taxes on the exercise of any right is problematic. Though the Supreme Court has said that specific taxes on the exercise of a constitutionally protected right are wrong, the Court has allowed general taxes like sales taxes to remain in place. That doesn’t mean that states have to impose those taxes, though, and Kansas lawmakers would be well within their authority if they decide to exempt these items from the state’s sales tax.
It’s estimated that scrapping the 6.5% tax for guns, ammo, safes, and accessories like sights and suppressors would lead to about a $10 million loss of revenue statewide. That’s a drop in the bucket compared to the total budget of more than $10 billion, and it would be well worth it, in my opinion.
There is one small but very important change that should be made to SB 209, though. Its current language defines firearm accessories as “items that are used in conjunction with or mounted on a firearm but are not essential to the basic function of a firearm, including, but not limited to, telescopic or laser sights, magazines, flash or sound suppressors, collapsible or adjustable stocks and grips, pistol grips, thumbhole stocks, speedloaders, ammunition carriers and lights for target illumination.”
Magazines are most certainly essential to the basic function of a firearm. Without them a semi-automatic firearm essentially becomes a one-shot device, and even the D.C. Court of Appeals has recognized that if magazines are considered accessories and not arms, then magazines of any capacity could theoretically be banned without infringing on our Second Amendment rights.
SB 209 should be amended to include magazines in the definition of “firearm”. The current definition states a firearm is “any weapon designed or having the capacity to propel a projectile by force of an explosion or combustion,” but the phrase “or any component necessary for the firearm to function as intended, including magazines” really should be added unless the Kansas legislature wants to provide the forces of gun control with some legal ammunition to use in the future.
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