House Finance members assail proposed levies on firearms, ammunition, gun clubs.

PROVIDENCE — Gov. Gina Raimondo's attempt to levy a 10-percent surcharge on the price of guns and ammunition drew hundreds of opponents in matching yellow T-shirts to the Rhode Island State House on Thursday to whoop and cheer each time a lawmaker likened the governor's move to an unconstitutional "assault on the Second Amendment.''

Sympathetic lawmakers on the House Finance Committee pelted the governor's budget team with questions about why "this particular industry'' — including gun clubs and shooting ranges that would face first-ever sales taxes on their dues and services under Raimondo's plan — had been singled out and not "beach clubs" or "polo clubs."

Jake McGuigan, the state-affairs director for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, came up from Washington to frame Raimondo's move this way:

"In the wake of failed efforts to enact new burdens on gun ownership, lawmakers in some states and localities are seeking a back-door approach ... gun-control taxes."

"Just like you can't solve drunk driving by making it harder for sober people to own cars ... taxing these non-criminal gun owners will do little to reduce gun violence,'' argued Doris Aschman of Narragansett, in written testimony.

After members of Raimondo's budget team acknowledged during the House hearing that guns and ammunition were in their sights because of the "negative externalities" associated with firearms, including the societal costs of gun violence, the lawmakers pounced.

"So we're saying because of the harm to society from firearms, it necessitates additional taxation?" Rep. Blake Filippi, the Republican House leader, asked Jonathan Womer, head of the state's Office of Management & Budget.

"Yes," Womer replied.

"But we haven't quantified what that harm is,'' Filippi persisted. " Are you aware that Rhode Island has the second-lowest murder rate from firearms in the country?"

"Yes," replied Womer.

"Why not tax other things harmful to people, like soda and butter?'' Filippi asked. (From outside the hearing room came the sound of roars of applause, from the guns-rights advocates watching the hearing on a TV set up in the hallway for the overflow crowd.)

"Let's be honest, they kill many more people in the state."

Womer cited tobacco products as an example where Rhode Island has levied higher and ever-increasing taxes, to which Filippi said there is no comparison. "We know those kills thousands and thousands of people a year."

Of Raimondo's companion proposal to extend the state's 7-percent sales tax to both dues and services at gun clubs and shooting ranges, House Majority Whip John "Jay" Edwards, D-Tiverton said, "This is a very slippery slope."

"This year it's going to be gun clubs. Next year, golf clubs, everything else I am assuming.... Once we open the door on this ... open season,'' Edwards said.

"It's shameful and it's a disgrace," said Rep. James McLaughlin, D-Cumberland. "This is an assault on the Second Amendment."

In the end, no vote was taken on any of the Raimondo revenue-raising proposals considered by the House Finance Committee on Thursday night, including the governor's bid to extend the state's 7-percent sales tax to landscaping, janitorial, pest-control and other property-management services — and lobbying (which Steven Brown, executive director of the ACLU of Rhode Island, called an assault on the First Amendment).

House Finance Committee Chairman Marvin Abney estimated that 437 people had signed up to register their views on Raimondo's gun-tax package. The overwhelming majority placed a checkmark under the heading "Opposed." A relatively small number asked to speak. Only a handful quietly checked "Support."

The large turnout had been sparked, at least in part, by Facebook postings by the local and national gun-rights groups urging gun owners to come to the State House wearing their signature yellow T-shirts.

The stated goal of the proposed new 10-percent surcharge on the sale price of guns and ammunition, in addition to the current 7-percent state sales tax: an additional $804,305 in state revenue during the budget year that begins on July 1.

As the House fiscal office reads Raimondo's proposal, she is also seeking to extend the sales tax to commercial hunting and trapping retreats and preserves, as well as shooting ranges for archery and firearms, and memberships to shooting clubs, effective Oct. 1. Those moves are expected to raise an additional $604,088.

The Rhode Island Firearm Owners' League urged its Facebook followers to sign a letter to send to House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello and members of the House Finance Committee that says, in part: "Individuals will find the already-expensive costs of enjoying shooting sports to be too high."

"It is important for legislators to not lose sight of the forest at the cost of a few trees. We should be encouraging small businesses to flourish in Rhode Island, not stifle them, and that is all this tax increase will accomplish."

The ultimate fate of Raimondo's revenue-enhancing proposals will not be known until the lawmakers roll out their reworked version of the governor's tax and spending plan in late-May or early June.