Missouri Representative: Concealed Carry Permit Fee Is a Tax on Second Amendment Rights

Missouri state Representative Eric Burlison (R-Springfield) contends that the fees associated with a concealed carry permit amount to nothing less than a tax on the Second Amendment.

To remove the tax, Burlison is pushing a bill that simply allows any legal gun owner 21-years or older to carry a gun openly or concealed without a permit. Similar laws are in place in Alaska, Arizona, Kansas, Maine, Montana, Vermont, and Wyoming.

According to KY 3, Burlison focused on the fact that Missourians can exercise their Second Amendment rights without a tax as long as they carry their handguns openly. But the second the gun is covered by a jacket or shirt, there is a paradigm shift and the person carrying the gun must have a license acquired via a tax to the government.

Burlison put it this way: “What you’re getting the permit for is to put clothing over the firearm that you already have a right to carry. I feel, and many other people feel it’s unnecessary and it’s soft and silly.” He said removing the permit–and the tax tied with it–is a way to re-secure the people’s right to keep and bear arms apart from government regulation.

He concluded, “What we want to do at the end of the day is give citizens that right–the same right to carry on the outside of your jacket or pocket, we want to extend that right to be able to carry on the inside of your jacket or pocket.”

AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.