Over the past few years, we’ve closely covered the topic of states placing an additional punitive excise tax on firearms and ammunition, with federal lawmakers even introducing legislation to make it illegal for states to do so. California has an additional 11% excise tax on guns and ammunition, and Colorado recently punished gun buyers by adding an additional 6.5% excise tax for guns, ammo and accessories purchased in that state.
Now, a prominent gun rights organization has had enough and is taking Colorado to court over its tax. On April 1 (and no this isn’t an April Fool’s joke), the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) announced it had filed a lawsuit in Denver County District Court challenging the state’s additional tax on guns, ammo and accessories as an unconstitutional tax on the exercise of a fundamental constitutional right.
The case is Langston v. Humphreys, and SAF is joined in the action by the National Rifle Association, the Firearms Policy Coalition, the Magnum Shooting Center of Colorado Springs, the Colorado State Shooting Association and Zachary Langston, a private citizen.
“Colorado’s excise tax is unconstitutional under the United States Supreme Court’s decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen (2022),” the complaint stated. “The tax on the exercise of Second Amendment rights implicates conduct protected by the Second Amendment’s plain text by adding to the cost of acquiring a firearm. Meanwhile, this infringement-by-taxation scheme is unsupported by this country’s history and tradition of firearm regulation. For this reason, Defendants will be unable to marshal widespread, relevantly similar analogs from the Founding Era as required under the Supreme Court’s precedent to justify the taxation scheme.”
SAF Director Adam Kraut said that the Colorado tax is obviously unconstitutional and should be challenged in the courtroom.
“Colorado’s new law impermissibly taxes an enumerated constitutional right,” Kraut said in a press release announcing the action. “Not only does the tax lack any basis in our nation’s history and tradition of firearms regulation, it violates Supreme Court precedent that states the exercise of constitutional rights cannot be targeted through taxation. We look forward to vindicating the rights of all Coloradans who are affected by this egregious attempt to chill the exercise of Second Amendment rights.”
For his part, Alan M. Gottlieb, SAF founder and executive vice president, pointed out that even Congress is trying to put a stop to states imposing additional taxes on firearms.
“Federal legislation to prevent this sort of tax was introduced just days ago in both the House and Senate,” Gottlieb said. “They’re calling it the Freedom from Unfair Gun Taxes Act, and greedy, anti-gun lawmakers in Colorado are probably at least partly responsible for such a bill on Capitol Hill. You simply cannot tax the exercise of a constitutionally protected fundamental right.”
Ultimately, plaintiffs are asking the court for a declaratory judgment stating that Colorado’s 6.5% excise tax on firearms and ammunition violates the right to keep and bear arms secured by the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution and requesting a permanent injunction enjoining Defendants from enforcing collection of the tax.
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