Gun and Ammo Taxes on Shaky Constitutional Footing

Cities and counties have been using so-called "sin taxes" to disincentivize socially harmful behavior for many years. But can this principle be applied to gun violence?

A few localities think it can and have passed their own excise taxes on guns and ammunition, even though the legal basis for these taxes may be unclear. One of them, Cook County, Ill., recently had its gun tax struck down by the Illinois Supreme Court as a violation of the constitution’s uniformity clause. The high court never reached a decision on whether Cook County’s tax constituted a direct violation of the right to “keep and bear arms” under the Second Amendment— an issue the plaintiff Guns Save Life still wants the court to answer.

On today's episode of our weekly podcast, Talking Tax, we hear two perspectives on this: one from the gun rights attorney who sued Cook County, and another from an economist and gun control advocate. Bloomberg Tax's Michael Bologna spoke to Pete Patterson with the firm Cooper & Kirk about the status of the litigation, and also to Rosanna Smart, a RAND Corporation economist, who supports local gun control measures but questions the value of excise taxes as a strategy for addressing gun violence.

Have feedback on this episode of Talking Tax? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

Everytown for Gun Safety advocates for universal background checks and other gun control measures. Bloomberg Law is operated by entities controlled by Michael Bloomberg, who serves as a member of Everytown for Gun Safety's advisory board.