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The Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) isn’t taking California’s new 11 percent gun tax lying down.
They’ve teamed up with the California Rifle & Pistol Association, National Rifle Association, Firearms Policy Coalition, and two private citizens to file a lawsuit in San Diego County Superior Court.
The case, dubbed James v. Maduros, takes aim at Nicolas Maduros, the big boss of the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration.
Alan M. Gottlieb, SAF’s founder and Executive VP, didn’t mince words.
“We contend in the lawsuit that this 11 percent tax is unconstitutional because it literally taxes conduct protected by the Second Amendment,” he said in a press release obtained by GunsAmerica.
“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,” he added.
SAF Executive Director Adam Kraut also chimed in.
“The power to tax is literally the power to destroy,” said 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,” he continued. “This will not stop with a tax on the right to keep and bear arms.”
The lawsuit is calling for the court to scrap the excise tax on guns and ammo, saying it violates the 2A. They also want the state permanently banned from enforcing AB 28 and to cover their legal costs, including attorneys’ fees.
The legal team backing SAF and the other plaintiffs includes attorneys Chuck Michel, Tiffany Cheuvront, Laura Palmerin, and Joseph Dale from Michel & Associates in LA, plus David H. Thompson and Peter A. Patterson from Cooper & Kirk in D.C.
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