NRA Sues California Over Excise Tax on Guns, Ammunition

The National Rifle Association of America and other gun rights advocacy groups sued California over its newly effective 11% excise tax on the sale of guns and ammunition, alleging the measure violates the Second Amendment.

The groups and individual taxpayers said the court should rule that the excise tax is unconstitutional because it singles out a constitutional right for special taxation, which is prohibited under US Supreme Court precedent.

“Here, California effectively seeks the power to destroy the exercise of a constitutional right by singling it out for special taxation,” the Tuesday complaint said. “If this tax is permitted, there is nothing stopping California from imposing a 50% or even 100% tax on a constitutional right it disfavors whether it be the right to keep and bear arms, the right to free exercise of religion, or any other right.”

While the tax is assessed on the sellers, the costs are passed down to purchasers, the complaint said.

California Revenue and Taxation Code § 36011, which places a 11% excise tax on the gross receipts from the sales of firearms and ammunition, went into effect on July 1.

Along with barring enforcement of the tax, the suit asked the court to prohibit the revocation of gun dealers’ registration certificates for not remitting the tax. The complaint was filed in the California Superior Court in San Diego County.

“The National Rifle Association has a record of challenging laws that needlessly abridge the rights of law-abiding Americans,” said Randy Kozuch, an Executive Director of the NRA Institute for Legislative Action. “California’s firearms excise tax is a blatant and egregious attack on the rights of Californians and a calculated maneuver to dismantle the Second Amendment.”

California Department of Tax and Fee Administration Director Nicolas Maduros is the named defendant in the suit. The CDTFA declined to comment.

Michel & Associates PC and Cooper & Kirk PLLC represent the plaintiffs.

The case is Jaymes v. Maduros, Cal. Super. Ct., complaint filed 7/2/24.