Taxpayer advocate warns taxes could kill the 2nd Amendment

Personal Liberty – by Sam Rolley

A massive new handgun tax imposed in one U.S. territory could serve as a blueprint for Democrats to ban firearms throughout the country without being shut down by the Constitution.

Late last month, a federal judge ruled unconstitutional a 40-year-old total ban on handguns in the Northern Mariana Islands. In the ruling, the judge declared: “[B]ecause the people of the Commonwealth are part of the American people who have overwhelmingly chosen handguns as their principal means of self-defense, the Second Amendment protects that right here as well.”  

In response to the judge’s order, the territory’s governing body worked out another way to deny residents’ 2^nd Amendment rights without constitutional interference. House and Senate lawmakers in the commonwealth quickly passed a harsh 57-page gun control bill which includes a massive $1,000 per pistol excise tax.

While the Mariana tax is outrageously high, it isn’t otherwise unique. In fact, it’s one of a growing trend of governmental schemes to raise the cost of guns and ammo with hefty taxes.

Just this year, local lawmakers in Seattle opted to place a $25 tax on every gun purchase in addition to taxing every round of ammo sold at between two and five cents depending on caliber.

And, according to Americans for Tax Reform head Grover Norquist, Democratic leadership in the White House following 2016 could bring prohibitive taxing schemes aimed at the 2^nd Amendment at the federal level.

“The Left is now seeking to tax guns out of existence,” Norquist said. “The Second Amendment makes it difficult to legally ban guns, but Hillary has led the way to explaining you can achieve the same thing with high taxes.”

Clinton has passionately endorsed the implementation of a 25 percent across the board sales tax on firearms in addition to Obama administration attempts to raise the cost to legally sell firearms to $2,500.

“Under the Obama-Clinton model, the cost of selling your best friend a $400 shotgun will be $2,900,” said Norquist.

Personal Liberty