Poll taxes are illegal. You cannot charge someone a tax in order to vote, which is a right every American citizen has.
You can't charge someone for exercising other rights, either, right? Well, in theory, you can't. In practice, it happens all the time, and I'm not talking about permits for demonstrations, which are something different entirely. No, poll taxes get applied to gun rights all of the time.
One way this happens is with excise taxes on things people need in order to actually exercise their right to keep and bear arms. The courts so far have disagreed with my assessment, unfortunately, but that doesn't mean it's less true. The courts have been wrong before.
Luckily, a couple of Republican lawmakers are looking to gut this practice entirely.
Republican lawmakers are pushing to stop states from imposing excise taxes on gun and ammunition sales, a condemnation of a measure California enforced in 2024.
In 2023, California became the first state to adopt a measure imposing an excise tax targeting the gun industry. The legislation sets an 11% excise tax on guns and ammunition sales and directs the revenue toward gun relinquishment programs and other gun control initiatives.
Colorado is also poised to impose a 6.5% excise tax on similar purchases in April. Other states like Maryland, New York and Massachusetts are considering similar pieces of legislation.
But these initiatives amount to unconstitutional tax that undermines the Second Amendment, according to Republican lawmakers.
Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, and Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., who introduced the Freedom of Unfair Gun Taxes Act to their respective chambers of Congress Thursday, are seeking to bar states from adopting these measures.
"Blue states that implement an excessive excise tax to fund gun control initiatives are exploiting the Second Amendment," Risch said Thursday in a statement to Fox News Digital. "The Freedom from Unfair Gun Taxes Act ensures states do not place a significant financial burden on law-abiding gun owners to advance their anti-Second Amendment agenda."
Issa said states like California historically have introduced "extreme" policies targeting gun owners that jeopardize their Second Amendment rights.
Part of the issue here is that they've specifically targeted the firearm industry with these excise taxes. Had this just been a blanket sales tax across the board, it would have been fine, at least with regard to gun rights. It's not, though. It's specifically trying to make gun owners foot the bill for anti-gun initiatives.
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And it's stupid.
And wrong.
Of course, this isn't necessarily the worst problem, either. Permit-to-purchase laws are even more directly akin to poll taxes, for example, and California requires a background check just to buy ammo.
What this is, though, is lower-hanging fruit.
You're unlikely to get Congress to intervene on state gun control laws or even those that are more about ammo control. Going after an excise tax that targets a single industry is a different matter.
That doesn't mean it won't have a very tough road to travel if it's to become law. It would probably work better being merged into some "must-pass" legislation that Democrats can't afford to vote against, though.
In fact, that's probably where most gun rights laws need to end up, if we're being honest.
This one isn't groundbreaking, but it's important and a good step forward.
