While Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is proposing a “Second Amendment Summer” sales tax holiday that would stretch from Memorial Day to Independence Day, lawmakers in neighboring Georgia are looking to give gun owners a break a little later in the year… and for not nearly as long.
The Georgia Senate approved SB 47 last Wednesday, but not without some debate over what should be a fairly uncontroversial bill.
If passed, Senate Bill 47 would establish an 11-day state sales tax holiday on guns, ammunition and many accessories like scopes, stock, barrels and magazines. It would begin the first Friday of every October.
“Families are feeling unsafe. We’ve seen cities burning to the ground. We’ve seen absent prosecutors in many different communities around Georgia and around the country,” said the bill’s sponsor state Sen. Jason Anavitarte (R-Dallas), moments after it cleared the Senate. “People are wanting to keep themselves safe, they’re wanting to keep their families safe.”
The bill is nearly identical to an effort Anavitarte and his senate Republican colleagues made last year to set up a sales tax break on guns. That bill, which didn’t end up passing, would’ve established a shorter five-day holiday.
Democrats immediately accused Republicans of insensitive timing. The bill passed just 161 days after the deadly shooting at Apalachee High School in Barrow County that left two teachers and two students dead.
“Just 161 days”, huh? That makes it sound like Democrats might have dropped their objections if Republicans had waited another couple of weeks or months before moving on the legislation, which is most assuredly not the case.
“More guns is not going to make the state safer,” said state Sen. Emanuel Jones (D-Decatur). “I don’t understand the logic behind trying to continuously promote guns in the state when we know the effect that it’s had on gun deaths and the effect that it’s had on our community.”
Unfortunately for Jones, the data doesn’t match his dire intonations. Violent crime in Atlanta, the state’s largest city, has declined 60% since 2009, even though the state likely has millions more guns than it did back then. More guns doesn’t equate to more crime, but it does indicate more folks exercising their constitutional right to keep and carry a firearm.
Democrats instead urged Republicans to consider their House Bill 2, which would provide a $300 tax credit to incentivize the purchase of gun safety equipment like gun locks and safes.
“Thoughts and prayers really isn’t enough anymore. We need action,” said Jones. “And there’s some very basic things Georgia can do right now.”
Anavitarte said the bill, nor its timing, had anything to do with the tragedy at Apalachee and during debate, many Republicans accused Democrats of playing politics with the lives lost.
“I don’t think that what happened at Apalachee or these other school shootings has anything to do with the Second Amendment or people wanting to keep themselves safe,” said Sen. Anavitarte. “Democrats feel the way they do, we feel the way we do. But I don’t think the timing means anything.”
I don’t see any reason why HB 2 shouldn’t be adopted as well. Lawmakers don’t have to choose between one or the other, after all. The sales tax holiday and the tax credit for gun safes would both be of benefit to Georgia gun owners, even if the Democrats’ proposal isn’t really aimed at making it more affordable to exercise our Second Amendment rights. The Republican majority, however, was right in rejecting the Democrats’ attempt at tying in the sales tax holiday to a school shooting committed by a teenager who didn’t purchase the gun used in the attack to gain any traction. Now it’s up to the House to follow suit, and up to Georgia gun owners to contact their representatives and push for SB 47’s passage.
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