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Jesse Gabriel
Assemblyman Jesse Gabriel. (Photo: Kevin Sanders for California Globe)

Bill To Add 11% Tax On Firearms & Ammunition Passes In Senate

‘This isn’t exactly a safety backstop’

By Evan Symon, September 8, 2023 2:30 am

A bill to add an 11% tax on firearms and ammunition in order to fund school safety measures and violence prevention programs was passed in the Senate on Thursday with the required 2/3rd votes.

Assembly Bill 28, authored by Assemblyman Jesse Gabriel (D-Woodland Hills), would impose an excise tax in the amount of 11% of the gross receipts from the retail sale in this state of a firearm, firearm precursor part, and ammunition beginning on July 1, 2024. The bill, also known as the Gun Violence Prevention and School Safety Act, would then send all collected revenues to the Gun Violence Prevention, Healing, and Recovery Fund, which would be set up in the California Treasury. From there, funds would then be divested to fund various gun violence prevention, education, research, response, and investigation programs.

Overall, the tax under AB 28 would bring in an estimated $160 million a year. Programs that would be funded by the tax specifically named by Assemblyman Gabriel would include the California Violence Intervention and Prevention Grant Program school mental health services and safety measures, firearm investigation and clearance rate initiatives, firearm relinquishment programs for domestic abusers and other prohibited persons, trauma-informed services for victims of gun violence, and firearm safety education.

Since AB 28 is a tax increase, the bill will needed to be approved by a 2/3rds majority in both houses, rather than a simple majority required of most bills.

Assemblyman Gabriel authored the bill earlier this year largely to help improve safety in schools and the improve firearm safety in California by having firearms owners and buyers foot the bill. He also specifically references the rise of firearms injuries, as well as other states previously enacting “longstanding commercial, occupational, or other taxes on those selling, purchasing, or possessing firearms and other dangerous weapons.” This was in addition to previous comments by Gabriel on “record profit” by gun and ammunition manufacturers while many high profile shooting incidents like Monterey Park and Half Moon Bay have taken place in California, the bill will not go after those behind the mass shootings, and instead go after legal gun owners and buyers in California, many of whom are protecting themselves from such incidents.

AB 28 passes in the Senate

Despite heavy opposition from firearms groups, the bill received enough support to climb through the state legislature. In May, the bill passed the Assembly in a 56-17 vote with 7 abstaining, strictly across party lines. The party line held through the Senate Committee votes and into the Senate vote on Thursday, where it passed with the 2/3rds needed to reach the Governor.

“I am grateful that a supermajority of the Legislature voted today to fund critical programs that will save lives and protect communities across the State of California,” said Assemblyman Jesse Gabriel on Thursday. “It’s beyond shameful that gun manufacturers are reaping record profits at the same time that gun violence has become the leading cause of death for kids in the United States. The Gun Violence Prevention and School Safety Act will help to ensure that we have the tools and resources necessary to better protect our kids and our communities.”

Former Arizona Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, who was shot in an assassination attempt in 2011 and has since become a gun control advocate, added, “California has a long history of paving the way for effective methods of reducing gun violence. It’s an undisputed leader in the fight for gun safety, and I am proud GIFFORDS has worked alongside gun violence prevention groups across the state and members of the legislature, including Assemblymember Gabriel, to help advocate for the state’s latest effort. We urge Governor Newsom to prioritize the safety of California’s kids and communities and sign The Gun Violence Prevention and School Safety Act, a top priority for the gun violence prevention movement.”

Opponents to the bill said on Thursday that if Newsom signs the bill later this month, it would only create a larger market for people buying out of state and create a more thriving black market as a result.

“This is one of those bills, that on the surface, seems good,” said Nathan Hollier, a lawyer in California who has represented many gun owners in the past. “I mean, increased gun safety and more money going to school safety fixtures seems great. But the backers of this bill have been focusing way too much on the positives, because there are a lot of negatives here we have to worry about.”

“11% is a lot all things considered, and that’s enough to get people to buy through alternate means. That means out of state, so Arizona, Nevada, Oregon and other states will see a bump in business. From LA, the Nevada border is less than four hours away. It’s been illegal to do so since 2018, but it has also been very loosely enforced. If this bill is passed and that 11% goes into effect, I suspect that bill backers will suddenly have a very hard time explaining why the estimates aren’t being met for revenue because of more people going out of state.”

“This has already been happening in a lot of places. Look at the aluminum scrap metal market between Nevada and California. Illegal, but a lot of people do it. Same for marijuana. The black market is going gangbusters and the legal market in California is eroding. Plus, there’s that old adage. If people really want to get guns and ammo, they’ll find ways to get it. Look at how many people bought guns because of the George Floyd riots in 2020. This isn’t exactly a safety backstop.”

AB 28 is expected to be signed by Governor Newsom.

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7 thoughts on “Bill To Add 11% Tax On Firearms & Ammunition Passes In Senate

  1. How many of Democrat Assemblyman Jesse Gabriel constituents in Woodland Hills are clamoring for increased taxes on on firearms and ammunition? Few to none? No doubt he’s another WEF globalist stooge who was installed with Democrat voter fraud and rigged voting machines?

  2. Another gun control bill in California to be added to the over 800 gun laws we already have on the books. And yes this one will stop all gun crime like the other laws did but at the same time tax the evil gun and ammo manufacturers! When Governor Climate Change signs it we will all be saved!

  3. WHY ONLY 11%? Let’s go full-tilt liberal California and make it 99%!
    I get my guns from off the street, anyway, so no big deal. I’m up to 7 now, varying types and sizes. For ammo, my two friends — one in Medford, one in Virginia City — get me everything I need, and all I gotta do is buy the beer.

  4. New Mexico Democrat Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham just issued an emergency order suspending the right of law-abiding citizens to open and conceal carry firearms in crime-ridden Albuquerque and the surrounding county for at least 30 days, after declaring a public health emergency in response to a spate of recent gun violence. Deep-state globalist Democrats like Michelle Lujan Grisham will declare that firearms are “public health emergency” to impose their tyranny just like they did with the COVID scamdemic?

    1. Congressman Ted Lieu (D-CA) is claiming (correctly) that New Mexico’s governor is violating the U.S. Constitution. But, he’s curiously silent when the California governor, legislature and local officials do the same thing; i.e., disregard the Constitution and invoke emergency edicts and pass state laws and local ordinances for gun control, Covid, climate change, illicit drugs, transgender policies….It’s bad if you in New Mexico do it but not if we do it in California, right Ted?

      https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/gun-rights/sun-new-mexicos-declared-public-health-emergency-over-gun-violence

  5. In a nutshell, the branch of the Swamp in Sacramento is creating a gun control slush fund, and taxing us to fill it. As far as I am aware, there is still nothing in the penal code defining reloading components as ammo, or prohibiting purchase of said components, online or otherwise, though with this bunch of would-be tyrants, I’m sure that will change as soon as their dark, twisted, evil little minds grasp the concept. I’m fond of my pre-Smart Lock Lee Hand Press, and I’ve heard CH Tool & Die reloading tools are of excellent quality, as well as RCBS and Hornady. Get ’em while you still can, I suppose.

    As to obtaining new firearms without being coerced into paying for the destruction of our rights, well, we may as well face the fact that our election process has been too thoroughly corrupted for us to ever vote our way back to freedom. The only options we have at the moment are the courts, and passive non-compliance. In other words, ignoring these unjust laws, as some here have already suggested. Others have already been actively leading the way (https://defdist.org/). I am not about to advise anyone to break the law; such an act entails great risk to your finances, freedom, and given the current political climate, a greater than usual risk to life and limb. However, in the words of Robert A. Heinlein, “no intelligent man has any respect for an unjust law.” I must concur. It would seem that we all have some choices to make.

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