Sponsors (52)
The bill protects gun owners and retailers from state or local insurance mandates and firearm-specific taxes—reducing direct costs and regulatory complexity for them—but in doing so it removes funding and policy tools that jurisdictions could use to pay for prevention, victim compensation, and public-safety programs, shifting financial and public-health burdens onto governments, taxpayers, and victims.
Gun owners and purchasers will not be forced by state or local governments to buy liability insurance or pay user-fee-style charges tied to firearm ownership, avoiding new recurring costs and legal conditions on ownership.
Firearms and ammunition remain subject to the same general sales-tax rules as other goods and cannot be singled out for special state or local excise taxes or targeted user charges, preserving uniform tax treatment for purchasers and retailers.
Retailers and small businesses face less regulatory complexity and fewer potential new compliance costs because jurisdictions cannot impose firearm-specific insurance or fee regimes.
State and local governments lose a policy tool (targeted fees or mandatory liability insurance) they could use to fund firearm-safety programs, victim services, enforcement, or related administrative costs, increasing fiscal pressure on local budgets.
Victims of firearm incidents and the public may bear more of the financial burden because jurisdictions are barred from requiring liability insurance that could help ensure costs are compensated by responsible parties rather than taxpayers or victims themselves.
Removing the option of insurance mandates or targeted fees reduces state and local ability to use financial incentives or penalties to deter risky behavior and otherwise address public-health harms from firearms.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Introduced February 4, 2025 by Ronny Jackson · Last progress February 4, 2025
Prohibits states and local governments from conditioning the manufacture, importation, acquisition, transfer, or continued ownership of firearms or ammunition on a requirement to purchase liability insurance or on imposition of any tax, user fee, or similar charge. It preserves an exception allowing generally applicable sales taxes to apply to firearms and ammunition to the same extent they apply to other goods. Implements the prohibition by amending a federal criminal statute and by adding a new provision to the Internal Revenue Code that explicitly bars states and localities from imposing insurance requirements, taxes, user fees, or similar charges on firearms, pistols, or revolvers, while referencing existing federal definitions for those terms.