Ga. Republicans want sales tax holiday on guns, ammo
ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - After a fierce and nearly two-hour debate on Wednesday, a bill creating a state sales tax holiday for firearms cleared the state Senate.
If ed, 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 ing, would’ve established a shorter five-day holiday.
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Democrats immediately accused Republicans of insensitive timing. The bill ed just 161 days after the deadly shooting at Apalachee High School in Barrow County that left two teachers and two students dead.
“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.”
It wasn’t just Apalachee — 2024 was an active year for campus gun violence. The group Everytown for Gun Safety, which tracks gun violence, said last year was the most dangerous for school shootings since 2013. They tracked 219 incidents of gunfire on U.S. school campuses leaving 59 dead and 163 injured.
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.
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“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.”
Instead, Republicans said, it would be legislation aimed at increasing people’s access to firearms and outdoor recreation. Archery season picks up in mid-September and firearm season starts in mid-October, right around the time the sales tax break would happen.
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Eric Wallace has been with Adventure Outdoors in Smyrna for over a decade. They’re one of the largest gun dealers in the state — a sign outside boasts they have over 10,000 guns for sale.
“I know of a lot of other dealers in other states that we’re friends with, those are great weeks for sales for them,” he said. “It brings in a lot of customers, it gives them a reason to come out and buy a firearms or more ammunition.”
The bill wouldn’t give Georgians a break from the nearly 10% federal excise tax on pistols and revolvers and 11% excise tax on other firearms and ammunition, but Wallace said it would still be undoubtedly helpful to local dealers.
“Other dealers that we’ve talked to in other states where this is done, they say that it really gets people out,” he said. “Six or seven percent, that’s a pretty good chunk of change when you’re talking about a $500 gun.”
The bill dictates that the state sales tax break would expire in July 2030 and would need to be reupped again past that.
It now heads to the Georgia House, where it fell flat towards the end of the 2024 legislative session.
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