# Gun and Ammo Excise Taxes Violate the Second Amendment **URL:** \ **Category:** Legal & Second Amendment\ **Created:** [September 18, 2026, 9:57pm UTC](https://community.usconcealedcarry.com/t/gun-and-ammo-excise-taxes-violate-the-second-amendment/133626 "2026-09-18T21:57:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Karacal](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/community.usconcealedcarry.com/karacal/32/146742_2.png) [@Karacal](https://community.usconcealedcarry.com/u/Karacal)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2026, 9:57pm UTC](https://community.usconcealedcarry.com/t/gun-and-ammo-excise-taxes-violate-the-second-amendment/133626/1 "2026-09-18T21:57:29Z")
**Ammoland Inc. Posted on [September 17, 2026](https://www.ammoland.com/2026/09/gun-and-ammo-excise-taxes-violate-the-second-amendment/) by [Duncan Johnson Editor in Chief](https://www.ammoland.com/author/duncan/)** ![Lawful gun buyer confronts California’s 11% firearms tax and federal excise taxes at a gun-store counter.](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/uploads/dd_dev/original/3X/9/c/9c2aaaf6753183e1607dbaa663989ca3fc4fd4ee.jpeg) Special state and federal excise taxes drive up the cost of firearms and ammunition for lawful gun owners. Original illustration created for AmmoLand News using OpenAI image-generation Anti-gun politicians who cannot ban firearms outright have found another way to attack the right to keep and bear arms: make exercising it progressively more expensive. **ADVERTISEMENT** Second Amendment Foundation attorney and Director of Legal Research and Education Konstadinos T. Moros takes direct aim at that strategy in his second law review article, _[Excising the Second Amendment: Why Taxes Targeting Common Firearms Are Unconstitutional](https://www.ammoland.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Kostas-Moros-law-review-article_9.17.26.pdf)_. Applying the historical test required by New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, Moros argues that taxes singling out firearms, ammunition, and related products have no well-established analogue in America’s historical tradition of firearm regulation. **ADVERTISEMENT** His conclusion reaches beyond [California’s openly hostile 11% “sin tax”](https://www.ammoland.com/2024/07/2nd-amendment-foundation-sues-california-over-new-excise-tax-on-guns-ammunition/) and [Colorado’s 6.5% gun tax](https://www.ammoland.com/2024/11/lefty-voters-in-colorado-approve-unconstitutional-tax-on-guns-ammo-purchases/). It also challenges the federal Pittman-Robertson excise tax and [National Firearms Act taxes](https://www.ammoland.com/2026/08/federal-judge-blocks-atf-enforcement-of-nfa-registry-after-tax-drops-to-0/) to the extent they apply to commonly owned arms protected by the Second Amendment. **ADVERTISEMENT** ## California’s Gun Tax Shows the Real Burden Moros distinguishes special gun taxes from ordinary sales taxes that apply generally to consumer goods. The constitutional problem arises when lawmakers target firearms and ammunition for an additional financial penalty simply because they disapprove of armed citizens. California demonstrates how quickly those government-imposed costs accumulate. Using Moros’s hypothetical, a handgun that would ordinarily sell for $500 in Los Angeles rises to $584 after the federal and California excise taxes are included. Add California’s $37.19 background-check charge and the city’s 9.75% sales tax, and the buyer pays $678.13 out the door. A first-time buyer who also needs California’s firearm safety certificate pays $703.13, approximately 28% more than the handgun would cost with only the generally applicable sales tax. That burden falls hardest on working Americans who need an affordable firearm for self-defense. Constitutional rights do not belong only to those wealthy enough to absorb every tax and fee a hostile legislature dreams up. ## History Does Not Support Taxing Common Arms Moros’s historical survey found no widespread American tradition before 1900 of imposing special per-unit taxes on commonly possessed firearms. Founding-era militia laws frequently required citizens to own arms and sometimes protected those weapons from seizure for unpaid debts or taxes. Import tariffs existed, but they applied to broad categories of goods and were intended to encourage domestic arms production—not discourage Americans from acquiring firearms. The relatively few 19th-century laws that specifically taxed weapons generally targeted bowie knives, pocket pistols, and other arms many people of the period considered “dangerous and unusual.” Those laws were concentrated primarily in Southern states, sometimes applied only when the weapons were carried, and ordinarily left the prevailing military and self-defense arms untaxed. Some Reconstruction-era taxes were even used to price newly freed Black Americans out of gun ownership. Those racist regional outliers cannot establish the representative national tradition Bruen requires. ## Pittman-Robertson Is Not Exempt The paper’s treatment of the Pittman-Robertson excise tax may be uncomfortable for some gun owners because the money supports wildlife restoration, hunter education, and public shooting ranges. But a popular use of the revenue does not cure an unconstitutional tax. If the federal government imposed a special tax on newspapers to fund public libraries, the worthy destination of the money would not erase the First Amendment violation. The same rule must apply to the Second Amendment. Moros does not argue that firearms can never be subjected to ordinary taxation. His position is that the government cannot single out a constitutional right for an additional financial burden. > “A right that the government can price out of reach is not a right,” Moros said. That is the heart of the issue. Legislatures that cannot constitutionally prohibit Americans from buying common firearms should not be permitted to pursue the same objective through discriminatory taxation. The Second Amendment says the right “shall not be infringed.” It does not contain an exception for infringements disguised as taxes. ---
**Author:** ![BeanCounter](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/community.usconcealedcarry.com/beancounter/32/173526_2.png) [@BeanCounter](https://community.usconcealedcarry.com/u/BeanCounter)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2026, 10:29pm UTC](https://community.usconcealedcarry.com/t/gun-and-ammo-excise-taxes-violate-the-second-amendment/133626/2 "2026-09-18T22:29:30Z")
New York? You know CA has excise taxes too ![](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/uploads/dd_dev/original/3X/a/0/a04cf984aca5a52e4a1eecccd6ddb2290dfb0639.gif "Very Nice Wow GIF - Very Nice Wow Sarcastic Face - Discover & Share GIFs") ---
**Author:** ![Gary406](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/community.usconcealedcarry.com/gary406/32/42290_2.png) [@Gary406](https://community.usconcealedcarry.com/u/Gary406)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2026, 11:25pm UTC](https://community.usconcealedcarry.com/t/gun-and-ammo-excise-taxes-violate-the-second-amendment/133626/3 "2026-09-18T23:25:25Z")
The only thing Democrats hate worse than a gun owner is a poor gun owner. ---
**Author:** ![Will\_B](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/community.usconcealedcarry.com/will_b/32/102791_2.png) [@Will\_B](https://community.usconcealedcarry.com/u/Will_B)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2026, 12:26am UTC](https://community.usconcealedcarry.com/t/gun-and-ammo-excise-taxes-violate-the-second-amendment/133626/4 "2026-09-19T00:26:30Z")
Colorado excise tax on firearms is 6.5% above and beyond city and state sales taxes already applied. Wasn’t the original revolution about taxes without representation? ---
**Author:** ![BeanCounter](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/community.usconcealedcarry.com/beancounter/32/173526_2.png) [@BeanCounter](https://community.usconcealedcarry.com/u/BeanCounter)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2026, 2:18am UTC](https://community.usconcealedcarry.com/t/gun-and-ammo-excise-taxes-violate-the-second-amendment/133626/5 "2026-09-19T02:18:29Z")
> [@Will\_B](#): > > Colorado excise tax on firearms is 6.5% above and beyond city and state sales taxes already applied. ![](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/uploads/dd_dev/original/3X/0/3/030dd342c8b4a8dd2b22f2327ea2a383ec77e2a0.gif "Ted Lasso Tedlassogifs GIF - Ted Lasso Tedlassogifs Jason Sudeikis - Discover &...") CA is 1️⃣1️⃣% ---
**Author:** ![Karacal](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/community.usconcealedcarry.com/karacal/32/146742_2.png) [@Karacal](https://community.usconcealedcarry.com/u/Karacal)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2026, 4:56am UTC](https://community.usconcealedcarry.com/t/gun-and-ammo-excise-taxes-violate-the-second-amendment/133626/6 "2026-09-19T04:56:11Z")
![IMG_0757](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/uploads/dd_dev/original/3X/9/8/9869e2bf8d8a5bcf42489b2f25c357c6b76de499.jpeg) ---
**Author:** ![mattm](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/community.usconcealedcarry.com/mattm/32/178411_2.png) [@mattm](https://community.usconcealedcarry.com/u/mattm)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2026, 1:22pm UTC](https://community.usconcealedcarry.com/t/gun-and-ammo-excise-taxes-violate-the-second-amendment/133626/7 "2026-09-19T13:22:30Z")
Montani Semper Liberi. I think that’s Latin for “Why I love it here” 😆 Tax free since 2021. $50 permit fee if you decide to get one is reimbursed at tax time as well. I paid more tax on my vehicles than the house this year, but the vehicle tax gets refunded as well. > **[West Virginia Provides Information on Sales Tax for Sales of Small...](https://www.salestaxinstitute.com/resources/west-virginia-provides-information-on-sales-tax-for-sales-of-small-firearms-and-ammunition)** > > Beginning July 1, 2021, West Virginia’s small firearms sales tax exemption will not require an exemption certificate for the sale of qualifying small firearms and ammunition. ---
**Author:** ![Derek35](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Derek35](https://community.usconcealedcarry.com/u/Derek35)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2026, 11:18pm UTC](https://community.usconcealedcarry.com/t/gun-and-ammo-excise-taxes-violate-the-second-amendment/133626/8 "2026-09-22T23:18:06Z")
> [@Karacal](#): > > California’s Gun Tax Shows the Real Burden Voters did not have a chance to vote on this. I am glad I am stocked up. Hopefully this goes away before I run out of ammo. 11% is just overkill. Sure cigarettes have an additional tax, but that can hurt others with second hand smoke. Firearms do not have second hand damage if left in hands of responsible owners that have a legal right to own. I have not heard of firearms causing cancer. ---
**Author:** ![Dave17](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/community.usconcealedcarry.com/dave17/32/15053_2.png) [@Dave17](https://community.usconcealedcarry.com/u/Dave17)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2026, 12:53am UTC](https://community.usconcealedcarry.com/t/gun-and-ammo-excise-taxes-violate-the-second-amendment/133626/9 "2026-09-23T00:53:39Z")
> [@Derek35](#): > > I have not heard of firearms causing cancer I am sure a democrat poli will eventually state that they do. Then the left wing “media” will use that statement to declare that firearms cause cancer, or vice versa. 🤣 ---
**Author:** ![Michael2378](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/community.usconcealedcarry.com/michael2378/32/180134_2.png) [@Michael2378](https://community.usconcealedcarry.com/u/Michael2378)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2026, 12:54am UTC](https://community.usconcealedcarry.com/t/gun-and-ammo-excise-taxes-violate-the-second-amendment/133626/10 "2026-09-23T00:54:10Z")
I remember a few years ago when stores became empty of ammo. I was so glad I had built up a supply at 🏡 home. How else would I enjoy going to the range and practicing for the Minnesota State VFW Tournament? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Michael2378](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/community.usconcealedcarry.com/michael2378/32/180134_2.png) [@Michael2378](https://community.usconcealedcarry.com/u/Michael2378)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2026, 12:57am UTC](https://community.usconcealedcarry.com/t/gun-and-ammo-excise-taxes-violate-the-second-amendment/133626/11 "2026-09-23T00:57:23Z")
My wife and I had such a wonderful time with everyone, a social occasion with some slight interruptions of gun fire (Pistol Competition) ---
**Author:** ![Will\_B](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/community.usconcealedcarry.com/will_b/32/102791_2.png) [@Will\_B](https://community.usconcealedcarry.com/u/Will_B)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2026, 1:07am UTC](https://community.usconcealedcarry.com/t/gun-and-ammo-excise-taxes-violate-the-second-amendment/133626/12 "2026-09-23T01:07:57Z")
> [@Derek35](#): > > have not heard of firearms causing cancer. Lead poisoning, yes….. high speed lead poisoning! Leadicillin as it’s called on coffee and justice!