California’s excise tax on manufacturers and dealers of firearms and ammunition doesn’t meaningfully constrain the individual rights protected by the US Constitution’s Second Amendment, a state trial court ruled.
Commercial retailers aren’t “people” within the meaning of the amendment because “there is no right to sell a firearm unconnected to the rights to keep and bear arms,” Judge Christopher E. Krueger wrote for the California Superior Court, Sacramento County, in a Monday tentative ruling.
California and Colorado’s 2024 firearms taxes have established a model that other states are considering adopting. So far none of the lawsuits seeking to challenge …