Fresh on the heels of federal legislation to prohibit excise taxes on guns and ammunition, a coalition of national and local gun rights organizations has filed a lawsuit challenging Colorado’s Proposition KK, which establishes an excise tax on the sale of firearms and ammunition, alleging in their complaint this constitutes an unconstitutional tax on the exercise of a fundamental constitutional right.
The suit was filed late Monday in Denver County District Court by attorneys representing the Second Amendment Foundation, National Rifle Association, Firearms Policy Coalition, Colorado State Shooting Association, Magnum Shooting Center of Colorado Springs and a private citizen, Zachary Langston. They are represented by attorneys David H. Thompson, Peter A. Patterson, William V. Bergstrom, Athanasia O. Livas, Julian R. Ellis, Jr. and Michael Francisco.
Named as defendants are Heidi Humphreys, executive director of the state Department of Revenue and Michael J. Allen, district attorney of El Paso County, in their official capacities. The case is known as Langston v. Hyumphreys.
In announcing its lawsuit, SAF asserted the state’s 6.5% excise tax on the retail sale of any firearm, firearm precursor part, or ammunition is unconstitutional in that it impermissibly singles out the exercise of a constitutional right for special taxation.
NEW LEGISLATION WOULD PROHIBIT GUN, AMMO EXCISE TAXES
“There have been several rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court prohibiting such a tax scheme,” SAF said.
According to SAF Executive Director Adam Kraut, “Colorado’s new law impermissibly taxes an enumerated constitutional right. 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.”
Alan Gottlieb, SAF founder and executive vice president, noted the coincidental introduction of federal legislation to prohibit this sort of special tax last week.
“Federal legislation to prevent this sort of tax was introduced just days ago in both the House and Senate,” Gottlieb stated. “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.”
The House version of the “Freedom from Unfair Gun Taxes Act” is known as H.R. 2442, while the Senate version is S. 1169. The House version is sponsored by Congressmen Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Richard Hudson (R-NC), while Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID) is handling the Senate version.
