ATF Taxes

I've often said Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms should be a business, not a government agency.

U.S. pockets $20.6 bln in sin taxes in FY'09


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Americans armed themselves to the teeth and paid through the nose to have a smoke, according to a U.S. government report released on Wednesday.

The U.S. federal government collected $20.6 billion in taxes on alcohol, tobacco, firearms and ammunition in fiscal year 2009, up 41 percent from the previous fiscal year, according to the annual report of the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau.

...There was also a spike in tax collection from the sale of guns and ammunition, said the report from the agency that has an annual budget of $99 million.

In October 2009, firearms and ammunition excise tax collection climbed 45 percent from the previous fiscal year, the greatest annual increase in the firearms tax revenue in the agency's history, the report said. By comparison, the average annual increase for fiscal years 1993 to 2008 was 6 percent....

The surge in gun/ammo sales is similar to what's happened in 1993 when Clinton was President and considered a threat to 2nd Amendmen rights.