Over the past 20 years, New Jersey has slapped new taxes and fees on rental cars, cigarettes, fertilizer, hard alcohol, Uber rides, vehicle registrations, wine, Airbnbs, e-cigarettes and divorce filings, to name just a few examples.

But in their search for more revenue, lawmakers haven't touched guns and ammunition.

Gov. Phil Murphy wants to change that. As part of the $38.6 billion budget proposal he unveiled last week, Murphy called for boosting gun fees — in some cases by 20 times or more — and adding special taxes that will make it more expensive to buy and use a gun in New Jersey.

Murphy framed the proposal, which would bring in an estimated $9 million, as part of his larger effort to tighten the state’s already strict gun laws. He noted that gun fees haven’t been raised since 1966 and the $2 it currently costs to get a handgun permit is lower than the price of dog licenses in many towns.

“This is what’s needed to support the efforts of Attorney General Gurbir Grewal, our State Troopers and county and local law enforcement, to fight crime and track gun violence, and to combat the trafficking of illegal guns into our state,” Murphy, a Democrat, said in his budget address. “In 2018, roughly 80 percent of guns used in the commission of a crime came from out of state.”

One expert on gun crime, however, cast doubt on the effectiveness of new fees to improve gun safety. Murphy's proposal wouldn't alter the process for buying a gun in New Jersey, which requires a background check for all gun sales.

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Meanwhile, Second Amendment advocates say they are poised to sue the state if the changes take effect. One New Jersey gun dealer compared the proposed fees to “usury.”

“Taxing people who are not part of the problem does nothing to reduce gun crime,” said Scott Bach, executive director of the Association of New Jersey Rifle and Pistol Clubs. “He [Murphy] needs to severely punish criminal behavior with firearms, not use gun crime as an excuse to target the rights of honest citizens.”

Under Murphy’s proposal, the state would raise the cost of the application fee for handgun purchase permits from $2 to $50; firearms purchaser ID cards from $5 to $100; handgun carry permits from $20 to $400; and retail dealer licenses from $50 to $500, among other fee hikes.

Those changes would raise an estimated $3.9 million, said Jennifer Sciortino, a spokeswoman for the state Treasury Department.

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Beyond that, Murphy wants to introduce an ammunition excise tax of 10 percent, a firearms excise tax of 2.5 percent and an increased fee on bear hunting — an activity he promised as a candidate to put a moratorium on but thus far has blocked only on state land. Together, those initiatives would generate an additional $5.1 million, Sciortino said.

The new taxes would be paid on top of the 6.625 percent sales tax already applied to firearm and ammunition sales.

Mel Katz, a gun dealer who owns Defensive Security in East Windsor, said the new taxes and fees would be a “major blow” to his industry, where he said the average box of ammunition costs about $15 or $20 and firearms can run from $100 into the thousands.

“The majority of the people who are buying firearms are blue-collar. It’s a hobby. They go hunting. They go target-shooting,” he said. “And it’s discretionary funds they use to support that hobby.

“But if now they want to go out and buy a handgun for $400 or $500, and it’s going to cost them $100 just to get a permit to purchase,” he continued, that’s going to put a “serious crimp” on what they buy.

Gun sales in New Jersey average between 200 and 400 a day, depending on the political mood in the country, Katz said. The governor’s proposal would not only hurt gun dealers like himself, he said, but it also “goes against the Second Amendment because it restricts people’s ability for self-defense.”

Daniel L. Feldman, a former Democratic legislator in New York and a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said the changes could have “some small effect” on reducing gun violence to the extent that a portion of residents would be priced out of owning a gun. That could mean fewer guns in homes, where they can be used in domestic violence incidents or fired on accident.

But, he said, there’s little relation between economic class and propensity to gun-related domestic violence. And in any case, he said, far fewer guns used in crimes come from legitimate purchases in New Jersey than from so-called “straw purchases” — where one person buys a gun on behalf of someone else who is barred from doing so — in states with laxer guns laws.

“So yes, there will be some segment of gun tragedies that will be averted by this,” Feldman said, “but given the role of straw purchasers, given the role of people who certainly can afford it, I can’t see that this counts as a substantial measure toward gun safety.”

In his 14 months in office, Murphy has signed a raft of bills to tighten the state’s gun control standards, from making it easier for police to seize guns from people deemed to pose a threat to outlawing new-age firearms designed to evade detection by law enforcement.

Together with Attorney General Grewal, Murphy has also helped piece together a regional gun coalition that includes six states and Puerto Rico, and New Jersey has begun releasing periodic reports designed to “name and shame” states with laxer regulation by detailing where “crime guns” recovered in New Jersey were first purchased.

Those reports include such data as gun caliber and where they are recovered. Murphy on Tuesday announced they will also start to include information about who made the guns to "encourage these manufacturers to act responsibly."

Many of those steps have earned the ire of gun rights activists and gun owners, who say the Democrats who control the Statehouse are punishing law-abiding citizens and impinging on their constitutional rights.

Murphy’s latest proposal to raise gun-related taxes and fees faces an uncertain future. Asked his position on the proposal last week, Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester, who must agree to the changes, declined to endorse them.

“We are the most progressive state in the nation when it comes to gun reform,” he said. “And just to check a box to say you did something, I’m not sure that’s necessary, and I don’t think it’s going to raise a lot of money.”

The state’s budget for the coming fiscal year must be finalized by July 1.

Email: pugliese@northjersey.com