Republican lawmaker’s bill removes sales tax from gun safes, safety devices

A Republican lawmaker has filed a bill that would exempt gun safety purchases from sales tax.

The bill, HB 375, sponsored by Rep. Matt Simpson, R-Daphne, would add gun safety devices and safes to the list of items exempt from sales tax. It passed the House Ways and Means Education Committee, which handles sales tax legislation, on Wednesday.

Simpson said in a phone interview on Monday that the bill was modeled on similar legislation in Tennessee and said it would promote gun safety and cut taxes.

“I just think it’s a win all the way around,” he said.

The safety devices exempted would include devices installed on firearms that only allow certain people to use them.

The legislation comes amid a series of mass shootings in both Alabama and the United States. 

On Saturday, eight people were killed on Saturday in a mall shooting in Texas by a gunman carrying an AR-15 rifle. Graphic images of the victims circulated on social media and led to criticism.

Last month, four people were killed and 32 were injured at a Sweet 16 birthday party in Dadeville. Six people, including a 15-year-old, have been charged in connection with the shooting.

In March, three adults and three children were killed in a school shooting in Nashville. 

According to Everytown, an advocacy group to lessen gun violence, Alabama’s gun laws rank 34th for safety. The group gives the state credit for policies like preventing domestic abusers from owning firearms, but criticizes the state for not having laws mandating safe gun storage or allowing family members to petition courts to seize guns from people who may be at risk of harming themselves or others. 

Simpson that he hopes the bill will increase gun safety in Alabama. He said that there are times when guns end up in the wrong hands and people don’t know how.

“Either kids or somebody else received somebody else’s gun and so this is a way to, people can store their guns safely and can keep them at home in a safe manner,” he said. “And we have an opportunity to promote that in Alabama.”

Guns are the leading cause of death for children in the United States.

Rep. Phillip Ensler, D-Montgomery, who has introduced bills to create red flag laws and ban modifications that turn firearms into automatic weapons, said Monday that he hopes the bill would lead to awareness for gun safety measures. He thinks the bill does not go far enough, but he will vote for it.

“I would analogize it though to, if there’s like a fire and maybe gun deaths are the fire and the tragedy that we’re dealing with, I mean, this is maybe like bringing a bucket of water to the fire to put it out,” he said. 

A former teacher for Montgomery Public Schools, Ensler said that he’s had numerous students impacted by gun violence, both as victims and as pulling the trigger.

In the class of 2020, 19 students 18 or younger in Montgomery Public Schools died violently, many by firearms.

“It doesn’t have to be thoughts and prayers, you know, or legislation,” he said. “It should be all three. There’s a need for thought and prayer and taking action.”

Simpson said that tax incentives face an “uphill battle” with the Education Trust Fund right now. Sales tax goes into the education budget in Alabama. According to the fiscal note, the bill would cost around $1.3 million a year.

“You just, you never know what’s going to happen,” he said.

Last month, the chair of the Senate Finance and Taxation Education Committee Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, spoke against economic incentives on the floor the day that a package of incentive bills passed the chamber.

On the floor, Orr called incentives “repugnant” and wondered if counselors may have prevented the Dadeville shooting.

A message seeking comment was left with Orr’s office.

Rep. Barbara Drummond, D-Mobile, has filed a bill that would lead to felony charges for a parent if a child brings an unsecured gun to school. The legislation has received committee approval but awaits a vote in the House. 

The day Drummond filed her bill, there was a school shooting in Colorado. Since then, there have been four more school shootings across the country.

Simpson said the bills are not the same and not a package deal.

“This is just an opportunity to see if Alabama can promote gun safety,” he said.

Drummond agreed that the bills aren’t the “same,” but she thinks they complement each other. She said her bill more directly deals with school safety.

“The premise is the same: we both want responsible gun owners,” she said.