[Arthur Wildfire! March]

Oh goody. They read the entire amendment for a change. The right to bear arms, etc etc 'shall not be infringed.' No brainer really if they have the energy to read it to the end. So why is there still a blinking bullet tax???!!!! That is an infringement. Bullet sales should be immune to all sales taxes and hidden taxes. I'm not even certain if you should be able to tax capitol gains on profits generated from bullet and gun manufacturing. It would be the same as taxing a church. Churches are immune to taxes. So should gun and bullet manufacturing be immune. Our founding fathers wanted to ENCOURAGE target practice. That is the whole idea.

[Frohickey]

Oh goody. They read the entire amendment for a change. The right to bear arms, etc etc 'shall not be infringed.' No brainer really if they have the energy to read it to the end. So why is there still a blinking bullet tax???!!!! That is an infringement. Bullet sales should be immune to all sales taxes and hidden taxes. I'm not even certain if you should be able to tax capitol gains on profits generated from bullet and gun manufacturing. It would be the same as taxing a church. Churches are immune to taxes. So should gun and bullet manufacturing be immune. Our founding fathers wanted to ENCOURAGE target practice. That is the whole idea.

The tax on ammunition and guns is for wildlife conservation (not preservation). It was a tax encouraged by hunters to improve the habitat for wildlife (game or non-game).

[El Gato]

Nothing in the Constitution prohibits taxing churches, that is a matter of statutory law. Similarly a general sales tax that included guns and ammunition would be Constitutional, since no attempt was made to single these protected items out for "infringment", the courts have ruled thusly with regards to newsprint and ink.

The tax on ammunition and firearms is really the idea of hunters and other gun people, fisherman too as it applies to their equipemnt also, IIRC. The problem is that it actually raises money, money which Congress would rather spend bying votes than for it's original statutory purposes of protecting wildlife habit and so forth. That's the federal tax of course, YMMV depending on your state.