Guns and ammunition will be a little more affordable in Mississippi for the next few days. The state’s Second Amendment sales tax holiday kicked off today and runs through the end of Sunday, which means the state’s 7% sales tax is suspended for all applicable items. That includes all firearms and ammunition, as well as certain hunting supplies like archery equipment, hearing protection, and holsters.
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Mississippi is one of a handful of states that offer a tax-free weekend on Second Amendment-related supplies, and it’s great that lawmakers have carved out a couple of days where most taxes on these items are waived (the federal government’s 11% excise tax, though, remains in place during these holidays).
I’m not complaining about these brief tax-free periods, but frankly, I’d like to see 2A-friendly states make sales tax exemptions for firearms and ammunition a year-round “holiday”. There are already five states where that’s the case, but that’s only because there’s no statewide sales tax to begin with. No state, though, has made gun and ammo purchases tax-free every day… probably because in most states gun and ammo sales generate a significant amount of revenue.
As the National Shooting Sports Foundation reported in 2022, the firearms industry “paid over $7.85 billion in business taxes, including property, income and sales-based levies” the previous year; a figure that doesn’t account for an addition $1 billion in federal excise taxes.
“The economic contributions of our industry are indisputably contributing to every state and every community. This is the hallmark of the hard-working men and women who prove that the American firearm and ammunition industry is strong,” said Joe Bartozzi, NSSF President and CEO.
“The growth of firearm and ammunition manufacturing year-after-year shows that this industry continues to meet the American demand for lawful firearm ownership. This industry produces the highest quality firearms and ammunition, and has been proud to welcome over 5.4 million first-time gun buyers in 2021 alone. These new gun owners are increasingly representative of Americans from all walks of life, including more women and more minority communities that have decided to exercise their right to keep and bear arms and to safely enjoy the recreational shooting sports. This growth equals more jobs that add to our local economies, averaging $56,900 in wages and benefits. Since 2008, federal tax payments increased by 206 percent, Pittman-Robertson excise taxes that support wildlife conservation by 214 percent and state business taxes by 151 percent.”
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Politicians don’t like to give up money, even it wasn’t theirs to begin with. Still, we have seen some improvement in that area, from Indiana eliminating application fees for concealed carry permits to the ongoing campaign in New Jersey that’s led to a half-dozen communities deciding to return the $150 they collect when residents apply for a carry permit back to the gun owner trying to legally bear arms.
Earlier this year Rep. Richard Hudson, Rep. Darrel Issa, and Sen. Jim Risch introduced the Freedom From Unfair Unfair Gun Taxes Act, which would prohibit states from enacting excise taxes on the “sale of a firearm, ammunition, or a part or component of a firearm or ammunition by a manufacturer or dealer that occurs in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce.”
That bill is a response to California’s recent enactment of an 11% excise tax on guns and ammunition that’s applied on top of the federal excise tax, but even if it was approved by Congress it would do nothing to reduce or eliminate the sales tax on those products.
The Supreme Court has generally held that taxes specifically aimed at limiting the the exercise of our First Amendment rights is illegal, but there’s not yet been a case dealing with the same issue on our Second Amendment rights (though California’s excise tax is currently being litigated). A statewide sales tax that applies not only to firearms and ammunition but every other commercially-sold good, though, would almost certainly be upheld by the courts.
So, if we want to exempt guns and ammunition from sales tax provisions, we’re going to have to go through state legislatures, not the courts. A good place to start would be those states like Mississippi that already have a limited carveout, but even there I imagine there are a lot of lawmakers who generally vote in favor of pro-2A bills who’d balk at any voluntary reduction in sales tax revenue. It may be the right thing to do, but it won’t be easy to achieve.
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Editor’s Note: President Trump and Republicans across the country are doing everything they can to protect our Second Amendment rights and right to self-defense.
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