Making guns tax-free... at least for a day

[jim_s]

Making guns tax-free... at least for a day

http://www.wfaa.com/news/texas-news/...193182831.html

by JONATHAN BETZ
WFAA
Posted on February 25, 2013 at 10:25 PM
Updated yesterday at 1:48 AM
Poll:
Do you support a tax-free holiday for gun sales?


DALLAS — Guns are already selling at record levels across Texas. The state ranks among the highest in firearm sales.

A Plano lawmaker now hopes to make it even more enticing for Texans to become gun owners.

State Rep. Jeff Leach, a 30-year-old Republican from Plano, filed a bill to make Texas Independence Day (March 2nd) a tax-free holiday for guns and ammunition.

“Gun owners and gun manufacturers in Texas need to know that Texas stands behind them,” Rep. Leach told News 8 on Monday. He said he filed his bill — called the Texas Gun Ownership Reinforcement Act — in response to calls to tighten federal gun laws.

“It isn’t meant to be disrespectful,” he explained. “I understand that the gun debate is hot right now, but that doesn’t take away the fact we are guaranteed the right to keep and bear arms.”

The idea is modeled on the state’s tax-free weekend for clothes and school supplies before every school year.

The gun idea is not completely unheard of; other states have offered to skip sales taxes on firearms.

South Carolina created and later abandoned such a program.
In 2009, Louisiana lawmakers passed a “Second Amendment Sales Tax Holiday” on guns and ammunition that remains in effect. The tax-free weekend costs the state nearly $600,000 a year.

It’s unclear how much money Texas coffers would lose under such a proposal, but Leach says it will likely be minimal.

“We need to be about encouraging and incentivizing lawful gun ownership in Texas, and this is what this is all about,” Leach said.

The Plano lawmaker said his bill has wide support and has picked up 25 co-authors.

Critics, however, instantly cringed at the suggestion of making it even easier for Texans to purchase firearms.

“Sane people would not be trying to put more guns on the streets,” said Peter Johnson, a long-time community activist who has spent years staging gun buy-back programs.

He estimates he has helped remove 20,000 guns from Dallas’ streets over the past 30 years. The weapons are then destroyed once they’ve been turned over to police departments.

“The Texas legislator from Plano who’s responsible for this idiotic, insane, neurotic idea is in need of help,” Johnson said. “Texas cannot afford to educate its children, so the last thing Texas needs is a tax-free day!”

News 8 reached out to half a dozen gun retailers in the Dallas area. None particularly welcomed the idea, and some worried it would only create more backlash against the gun industry.

“It’s stupid,” one pawn shop owner said of the proposal. He, like many, asked for his name not to be used, fearing backlash against his store.

“There’s too much in the news as it is without stirring the fire by making it a tax-free weekend,” the owner said.

[ungawa]

What am I going to buy, a .50 caliber dust bunny?

[vinlander]

How did his critic, Peter Johnson, exactly take guns off the streets in his gun buy "back" (how can you buy something back you never sold?) programs?

They take almost no functional guns off the "streets" that would have been at risk for use in a crime.

If someone that deluded is his biggest critic, this should pass without a hitch. Good for Texas

[tsafa]

Tax-Free Holiday is good.

What would be even more effective is a law prohibiting police or govt from destroying firearms. They must be auctioned off.

Gun should be declared a National Treasure.

[FNG19]

Tax-Free Holiday is good.

Actually, tax-free holidays are horrendous public policy and don't increase sales. As such, I'm against them on their face.

[ungawa]

Actually, tax-free holidays are horrendous public policy and don't increase sales. As such, I'm against them on their face.

Better than on my face

[bpgood1]

Actually, tax-free holidays are horrendous public policy and don't increase sales. As such, I'm against them on their face.

Do you have any info at all to back that statement? If its costing the above mentioned state $600k in tax over a single weekend i would say your statement is unfounded.

[Jes]

Actually, tax-free holidays are horrendous public policy and don't increase sales. As such, I'm against them on their face.

Anything tax free is not horrendous. Taxes are horrendous.

[BadAtScreennames]

... and tens of thousands of Pennsylvanians stood around, pissed off, in gun shops because nobody could get through to PICS.

[FNG19]

Do you have any info at all to back that statement? If its costing the above mentioned state $600k in tax over a single day i would say your statement is unfounded.

I'm not trying to put words on your mouth, so please correct me if I'm wrong. I'm going to (perhaps incorrectly) interpret your statement to say, "If so many sales were made on the tax-free day that the state wound up losing out on $600k in taxes, I'd say that means you're wrong."

My response is: "That just means that tomorrow's sales were made today, not that there is an additional sale to be made tomorrow. Sales tax holidays tend to change the timing of purchases, not the quantity of them. If I was already intending to spend $500 on a rifle, I might be willing to stretch my budget to get it today and avoid the tax rather than save a little more and buy it with tax tomorrow. Or, I might buy a better rifle because more of my money goes into the purchase. But I'm still only buying one rifle. I'm just spending less doing it. They're a political gimmick, not an economy boon, and depending on how retailers game them, may result in more profit for the retailer with absolutely no difference in price for the consumer."

If you want something a little more wonkish, check out the Tax Foundation's research on Sales Tax Holidays.

Anything tax free is not horrendous. Taxes are horrendous.

That's not at all what I said. I said that tax-free holidays were horrendous public policy. That's not even remotely the same as "taxes are good".