The Second Amendment Foundation has filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn California’s recently-adopted 11 percent excise tax on the sale of firearms, gun parts and ammunition.
The case was filed in San Diego County Superior Court. Joining SAF are the California Rifle & Pistol Association, National Rifle Association, Firearms Policy Coalition and two private citizens, Joshua Gerken and Danielle Jaymes, for whom the case, James v. Maduros, is named. The defendant is Nicolas Maduros, director of the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration, in his official capacity. Plaintiffs are represented by attorneys Chuck Michel, Tiffany Cheuvront, Laura Palmerin, and Joseph Dale at Michel & Associates in Los Angeles and by David H. Thompson and Peter A. Patterson at Cooper & Kirk in Washington, D.C.
“We are challenging the constitutionality of the tax, as adopted by Assembly Bill 28,” explained SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb.
“We contend in the lawsuit that this 11 percent tax is unconstitutional because it literally taxes conduct protected by the Second Amendment. There is no analogous evidence such a tax was ever applied at the time of the Founding era, as required by the 2022 Supreme Court Bruen ruling.”
“The power to tax is literally the power to destroy,” added SAF Executive Director Adam Kraut. “Assembly Bill 28 gives the State of California the power to destroy the exercise of a right protected by the Constitution by singling it out for special taxation. If allowed to stand, this tax could be expanded, and California could ultimately impose similar excise taxes on other constitutional rights it dislikes. This will not stop with a tax on the right to keep and bear arms.”
The lawsuit asks the court to declare that the excise tax on firearms and ammunition violates the Second Amendment and permanently enjoin the state from enforcing the provisions of AB 28, including collecting the tax. It also seeks to recover costs, including attorneys’ fees.
Second Amendment Foundation
The Second Amendment Foundation (saf.org) is the nation’s oldest and largest tax-exempt education, research, publishing and legal action group focusing on the Constitutional right and heritage to privately own and possess firearms. Founded in 1974, The Foundation has grown to more than 720,000 members and supporters and conducts many programs designed to better inform the public about the consequences of gun control.
Another great example of why I have been arguing for years that those who violate, or attempt to violate, the Constitutional rights of United States citizens should be charged with sedition and prosecuted accordingly. Under our current system, these bastards are completely unaccountable for this legislation and its impact, and when the (unconstitutional) law is challenged in court, the taxpayers have to pay for the expense of the court costs. Until there is personal accountability for those who knowingly do these things, it will continue unabated.
They should win this…$10 million later. Which is part of the Communists’ strategy. The only good Communist…
The SAF is what the NRA should be. Instead of donating to the corrupt NRA send your funds to an organization that is actually doing something for gun owners.
This, and for so many other reasons, is why SAF gets my donations.
LMAO. Glad I dumped that shit hole.
If anything, I hope this works out to slap them in the face so taxes are removed and not required because the obtaining of ammunition is for the purposes of the militia and though the government is not providing the ammunition or guns, which they should be doing, they are at least providing a tax break to the real protectors of the state and country which is We the People.
Oregoneistan
This, theoretically, should be an easy case to win since supreme court precedent says you can not single out an individual right for taxation per MINNEAPOLIS STAR AND TRIBUNE COMPANY, Appellant v. MINNESOTA COMMISSIONER OF REVENUE.California will argue that the above case singled out a single publisher but the decision was broader than that, covering an entire right for anyone who exercised it.
GOOD! I support the removal of these UNCONSTITUTIONAL TAXES ON OUR AMERICAN RIGHTS! TIME TO RECOOP THE EXPENSES FOR THESE OUTLANDOUS UNCONSTITUTIONAL WARFARE “BILLS”!!