Colorado Voters Approve New Tax on Firearms, Ammo in Only Major Gun Referendum

Gun-control supporters can rely the Centennial State as considered one of their few vibrant spots from election night time.

Colorado voters formally accredited Proposition KK by a margin of 54.2 % to 45.8 %. With 73 % of the vote recorded, the Related Press referred to as the race early Wednesday morning. The vote will impose a brand new 6.5 % state-level excise tax on firearm and ammunition gross sales, with the income earmarked to fund crime sufferer companies.

The end result of the vote marked a uncommon win for gun-control advocates Tuesday, because the motion’s most well-liked candidates did not retain management of the White Home and the US Senate. With little deal with gun coverage in a lot of the high 2024 races, the referendum offers a few of the solely direct proof for the way weapons performed as a difficulty within the election–albeit in a state that has trended bluer over the previous decade. The one gun-related measure to seem on the poll anyplace within the nation, Proposition KK’s passage will make Colorado simply the second state to undertake a state-level excise tax on weapons and ammo.

The measure was impressed by California’s first-in-the-nation coverage and was referred to the poll earlier this yr by the state legislature’s Democratic majority. Underneath the Colorado Structure’s Taxpayer’s Invoice of Rights, all proposed tax will increase should first be accredited by a majority vote of the state earlier than they will take impact.

Colorado Home Majority Chief Monica Duran (D.), the prime sponsor of the invoice that turned Proposition KK, celebrated the result.

“Tonight actually is a full circle second for me; with out the assist from crime sufferer companies as a younger single mom trapped in an abusive relationship, there isn’t a method I’d be right here at the moment celebrating the passage of Prop KK,” she stated in a press release. “As federal {dollars} dwindle, Coloradans made the precise alternative this night to step up and assist fill the funding gaps in crime sufferer companies.”

At present, gun and ammunition gross sales are solely topic to state and native gross sales taxes, plus a federal excise tax of between 10 and 11 % to fund conservation efforts below the Pittman-Robertson Act. The brand new tax is about to take impact beginning April 1, 2025.

Underneath the measure, most firearm sellers, gun producers, and ammunition sellers in Colorado with greater than $20,000 in annual gross sales must pay the brand new tax on qualifying gross sales, which incorporates any firearm, “firearm precursor half,” or ammunition. These prices are broadly anticipated to be handed on to shoppers. Gun purchases by regulation enforcement businesses, in addition to particular person police and active-duty navy officers, are exempt.

The 6.5 % tax is projected to generate $39 million a yr, the majority of which is about to fund new grants for crime sufferer companies supplied by nonprofits and native governments. A few of the cash would additionally go to psychological and behavioral well being companies for veterans and at-risk kids.

Gun-rights advocates are anticipated to problem the measure in courtroom. A lawsuit filed by the NRA in opposition to California’s tax remains to be ongoing.