Why It Matters: On September 29th, 2025, H 3082– an act establishing an excise tax on guns and ammunition was heard by the Massachusetts Joint Committee on Revenue. This proposed law would add a 4.75% excise tax on firearms and ammunition to explicitly fund “community-based public health interventions and research to prevent gun violence; and services for gun violence survivors and victims’ family members.” This law foists the societal problem of violent crime and the responsibility to pay for it on the shoulders of law-abiding sportsmen and women. Additional costs to hunting and recreational shooting could potentially impact participation in hunting and recreational shooting, ultimately taking funds away from conservation efforts.
Highlights:
- California and Colorado currently have laws to exact taxes from firearm and ammunition purchases for the sole purpose of combatting “gun violence”.
- Similar proposals have been made in the states of Maryland, New Mexico, New York, Vermont, Washington, and other states.
- Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus (CSC) members Representative Darrel Issa (R-CA) and Senator Risch (R-ID) have reintroduced the Freedom from Unfair Gun Taxes Act to preemptively stop states from abusing sportsmen and women when purchasing firearms.
Late in the 2025 Massachusetts legislative session, and on the heels of stories of national tragedy involving violent criminal actions with firearms, the Commonwealth gave time and opportunity for anti-Second Amendment groups to extoll the virtue of making the law-abiding sportsman and woman solely responsible for paying for unproven “anti-gun violence” initiatives through an arbitrarily set tax on the wholesale value of a firearm and its ammunition.
The Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation (CSF), through the help of the Massachusetts Legislative Sportsmen’s Caucus Co-Chair Senator Durant’s office, was able to be one of the few voices to speak out against this bill during the committee hearing. CSF is continuing to work with other conservation partners to provide additional written testimony, which will be accepted up to November 21st.
Last year, Massachusetts added an omnibus law that directly impacts firearm owners in Chapter 135 or H 4885. With less than a year to prove out their claimed efficacy of creating gun laws, which ultimately and incorrectly assumes that sportsmen and women’s heritage of firearm use and ownership directly impacts criminal activity in society, the Commonwealth is pushing for further penalties on the sporting community with superfluous taxes. Sportsmen and women should not be held culpable for the actions of criminals.
The continued assault on firearm ownership and use in the Commonwealth has yet unforeseen consequences to the American System of Conservation Funding (ASCF), which is the world’s envy of programs to maintain our wildlife habitats for future generations, funded by a “user pays-public benefits” framework relying on sportsmen and women. In 1937, the Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration Act was the beginning of sportsmen and women agreeing to an amenable excise tax to conserve our natural heritage in perpetuity. Conservation efforts, through the cooperation of our sporting community, wildlife agencies, and legislators have since restored countless species and habitats across the nation. For example, the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of MassWildlife, the Commonwealth’s fish and game agency, cited that sportsmen and women provide 85% of their annual funding due to the ASCF and sporting permits sales which allows MassWildlife to effectively put conservation on the ground and continue to deliver their mission.
These past magnanimous actions of sportsmen and women are now being cited as an excuse by proponents of laws like H 3082 to also make the sporting community responsible for paying for “anti-gun violence” pet projects that have yet to prove results. Whereas sportsmen and women willingly participate in the “user pays- public benefits” model of the ASCF, it is unfair to charge the sporting community with additional fees to combat perceived social issues when they were never asked to the table to discuss how those monies would be appropriately and most effectively used. Also, by solely targeting sportsmen and women, the proponents for these excise taxes are tacitly putting the blame of violence committed by criminals on one of the most law-abiding sects of American society.
Many states continue to push for additional laws that impact the sporting community’s Second Amendment rights. CSF continues to work with legislative sportsmen’s caucus members and key legislators to educate them on similar laws’ potential impact on recruitment, retention and reactivation (R3) of sportsmen and women and the potential impact on conservation funding.
