Proposed Bill Gives Tax Exemption On Gun Sales

The state faces a major budget crisis, but that apparently won’t stop a Norman legislator from proposing a bill to create a “Second Amendment Weekend” that would exempt gun sales from taxes over a three-day period each year.

State Sen. John Sparks, pictured right, has told the local media the bill is about supporting the Second Amendment, but it’s simply a way to increase gun sales and reward gun sellers and buyers. How can anyone think lining the pockets of gun sellers with money or making guns cheaper is supporting a constitutional amendment?

So let’s look at the Second Amendment:

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

Note how the word “militia” is integral to the amendment. Note the amendment contains no language about using guns for hunting or personal protection or collecting guns, which are the primary uses of weapons among non-criminal, civilian citizens. This amendment, many scholars argue, is about potential military action.

Does Sparks want us to support the idea of modern-day militias in general? How does he define militias and “Arms”? What does his proposed bill, which would primarily benefit gun sellers, gun enthusiasts, hunters and people who want to protect themselves, have to do with “the security of a free State?”

Unless Sparks, a Democrat who faces re-election this year, can give cogent answers to these questions, then his proposed bill seems more like a political stunt designed to appease those Second Amendment radicals, who think everyone should be allowed to openly carry loaded weapons wherever they go. This is an irrational argument the amendment clearly does not address.

Let’s be clear. Many people believe there’s nothing wrong with hunting, gun collecting and guns for self-protection, but there IS something wrong with proposing a bill that doesn’t do what its author proclaims it to do. How, for example, does making it cheaper to buy a hunting rifle support the concept of militias and the importance of state security?

This bill would increase the state’s budget problems, albeit on a small scale, as state employees face furloughs, vital social service programs are being cut and the state’s public schools collectively face a massive shortfall. The legislature should vote this bill down, but it’s highly likely few Oklahoma politicians will run the political risk of opposing it.