{"id":116183,"date":"2026-04-13T16:01:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T21:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=116183"},"modified":"2026-04-13T16:01:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T21:01:09","slug":"116183","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=116183","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

Two Researchers Suggest \u2018New Firearms Tax Design\u2019 To Combat \u2018Gun Violence\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

By Dave Workman<\/p>\n

Writing at\u00a0ProMarket<\/a>, two researchers have declared it\u2019s time for \u201calternative tax regimes to replace\u201d federal excise taxes on handguns and long guns\u2014which generate revenues to fund federal wildlife restoration programs\u2014and doubling the taxes to \u201cproduce meaningful gains to society through a reduction in violence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Liberty Park Press reached out to authors Luis Armona and Adam Rosenberg, but did not recieve replies.<\/p>\n

However, the National Shooting Sports Foundation noted that one year ago, an\u00a0Op-Ed published<\/a>\u00a0on the NSSF website took Armona and Rosenberg to task for also pushing a gun tax proposal, leading off with this blistering observation: \u201cLeave it to the \u2018scholars\u2019 at Harvard Kennedy School to come up with a scheme that combines the arrogance of the \u2018intellectual elite,\u2019 increasing taxes, administering gun confiscation plans and \u2013 again \u2013 purposefully conflating \u201cpublic health\u201d policies for crime control for the latest pie-in-the-sky gun control plan.\u201d<\/p>\n

This was back on April 4, 2025. Writer Salam Fatohi observed about their alternative tax scheme, \u201cThey just need to\u00a0tax the snot out of them<\/strong><\/a>.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

In their new article, Armona and Rosenberg acknowledge \u201cwe know\u00a0surprisingly little<\/a>\u00a0about how these markets operate, including how consumers make choices between the thousands of firearms available to them, how much they value these weapons, and how suppliers set prices or react to taxes. Without this information, it is impossible to know whether a tax of, say, 50%, 10%, or 0% is the \u201cright level\u201d to raise federal funds and reduce gun-related crimes, or what the effects of these taxes would be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nowhere do they explain how y would mitigate the loss of federal aid funds for wildlife to the states, which have amounted to hundreds of millions of dollars since the Pittman-Robertson fund was enacted in 1937. Under this dedicated fund program, which is strongly supported by industry and sportsmen\u2019s organizations, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service provides annual apportionments to the states for wildlife-related programs, which include range development and hunter education.<\/p>\n

While the researchers push the argument that violent crime is a public health issue, NSSF\u2019s Fatohi noted last year, \u201c\u2026crime isn\u2019t a public health crisis, as much as gun control advocates want to profess it is.\u00a0Crime is a law enforcement issue<\/strong><\/a>. There is no prescription that prevents people who have no respect for life or law to make them not want to harm their victims. There\u2019s no pill to cure that ill-minded intent.\u201d<\/p>\n

He reminded readers that \u201cCriminals, typically, don\u2019t legally buy guns. That means they wouldn\u2019t pay the tax. The Department of Justice (DOJ) Bureau of Justice Statistics own\u00a0reports show<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0that 90 percent of criminals convicted of crimes involving a firearm admit they obtained those firearms through illicit means. In other words, those criminals stole those firearms or bought them on the black market.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mark Oliva, managing director of Public Affairs for NSSF, called this new tax suggestion \u201ca non-starter.\u201d<\/p>\n

He says the proposal pushes the premise \u201cthat law-abiding gun owners must subsidize (and pay an illegal poll tax) for the crimes committed by criminals.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not aware of a tax on library cards to combat illiteracy,\u201d Oliva said via email. \u201cOr a tax on voting to combat election interference. The \u2018right tax\u2019 comment tells you everything. Criminals aren\u2019t paying the tax when they illegally obtain guns. That would be forced on you and I.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whether the idea is a non-starter or may gain some traction, it underscores how wide the gap between common sense and nonsense, critics would argue. The gap is growing wider, and at stake is a funding mechanism which has served the nation\u2019s wildlife programs for generations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two Researchers Suggest \u2018New Firearms Tax Design\u2019 To Combat \u2018Gun Violence\u2019 By Dave Workman Writing at\u00a0ProMarket, two researchers have declared it\u2019s time for \u201calternative tax regimes to replace\u201d federal excise taxes on handguns and long guns\u2014which generate revenues to fund federal wildlife restoration programs\u2014and doubling the taxes to \u201cproduce meaningful gains to society through a … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-116183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crap-for-brains","category-rkba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=116183"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116183\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":116184,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116183\/revisions\/116184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=116183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=116183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=116183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}