WTRF.com reports that West Virginia’s House of Delegates passed legislation that would offer gun buyers a “tax holiday” during the first weekend of October. The Second Amendment Appreciation Act’s Democratic lead sponsor says the holiday could yield increased tax revenue. “The idea is to get them in to purchase the firearm and, along with that, you get all the ancillary benefits,” Scott Varner said. Gimmick, says Mark Robyn, an economist with the nonprofit Tax Foundation (albeit last August). “The revenue loss from the tax cut would likely be relatively small, which is one reason politicians love it so much,” Robyn wrote in a blog post. “They can enact a flashy headline-grabbing sales tax holiday and claim to be tax cutters while not really giving up much in revenue.” If passed, West Virginia would join South Carolina and Louisiana in the gun tax holiday business. Lawmakers in Mississippi and Oklahoma are currently considering the move. Massachusetts? Not so much.
