Gun and Ammo Taxes on Shaky Constitutional Footing (Podcast)

Cities and counties have been using so-called “sin taxes” to disincentivize socially harmful behavior for many years. But can this principle be applied to gun violence?

A few localities think it can and have passed their own excise taxes on guns and ammunition, even though the legal basis for these taxes may be unclear. One of them, Cook County, Ill., recently had its gun tax struck down by the Illinois Supreme Court as a violation of the constitution’s uniformity clause. The high court never reached a decision on whether Cook County’s tax constituted a direct violation of the right to ...