Bill Exempting Gun Safes From Sales Tax Advances
Bipartisan support for proposal that aims to prevent suicides, accidental gun deaths.
Two gun safes appear in a 2007 photo. Wikimedia Commons
Bipartisan sponsors of a Wisconsin bill hope that a tax break will encourage safe gun storage.
The proposal would exempt gun safes and other “firearm safety devices” from sales and use tax in Wisconsin.
During a public hearing Tuesday, state Rep. Adam Neylon, R-Pewaukee, the bill’s author, said his goal was to make it “more affordable” for Wisconsinites to store guns.
“We are encouraging gun owners to store their guns safely,” Neylon told the Assembly Committee on Ways and Means during an April 15 meeting that coincided with the state and federal tax deadline. “The more guns that are stored safely and securely, the better off our children will be.”
Many accidental gun deaths and suicides could be prevented, advocates say
Supporters say they hope they hope the tax incentives will cut down on tragedies made possible by easy access to guns. That includes suicides as well as wounds from accidental gunshots.
Gun-related injuries are the leading cause of death for American children, killing more than 2,500 kids a year, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
And more than half of all suicides involve guns in Wisconsin and across the country.
Many of those deaths are preventable, said Dr. Sophie Kramer, who testified in support of the legislation on behalf of Wisconsin’s chapter of the American College of Physicians.
“The issue with suicide by firearm is that often this is an impulsive decision, and unfortunately, a very lethal one compared to other means of suicide,” Kramer told the committee. “We do know that people who survive a suicide attempt rarely go back to attempt again.”
A version of the bill introduced earlier this year by Neylon and state Sen. Van Wanggaard, R-Racine, limited the tax exemption to safes used to store firearms. But, since then, the proposal has been amended to also include “firearm safety devices” designed to “prevent unauthorized access to the firearm or to prevent it from being operated without first deactivating the device.”
That could include various devices used to secure guns, like trigger locks and cable locks, according to the nonpartisan Wisconsin Legislative Council.
Bill has bipartisan support
Although the bill was authored by Republicans, it’s gained Democratic sponsors in the Legislature.
The proposal also has support from Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, who called for tax exemptions for gun safes, trigger locks and barrel locks in his 2025 State of the State Address. He included a similar measure in his budget proposal two years ago, but it never passed Wisconsin’s Republican-controlled Legislature.
Other bills regulating guns, such as proposals to expand background checks, have repeatedly failed in the Legislature after being brought forward by Evers and other Democrats.
No one testified against the bill on Tuesday. But Wisconsin Gun Owners, Inc. submitted a statement saying that the group supports the proposal with the condition that it not be amended to criminalize gun owners who don’t lock up their guns.
“Many gun owners in Wisconsin require immediate access to firearms for self-defense,” the group’s position statement said.
The bill’s tax exemption could lead to the loss of $720,000 in sales and use tax revenue in the 2026 fiscal year, according to an estimate from the state’s Department of Revenue. Statewide, revenue to counties and cities could go down by a total of $86,000, according to the estimate.
But supporters argued that lost revenue pales in comparison to the financial and human cost of gun violence, said Heather Haas with Moms Demand Action.
“A simple tax break for trigger locks [and] gun safes seems like a really smart decision, at least fiscally, if not morally,” Haas told the committee.
Haas told lawmakers she was part of a mass casualty response team that helped in the aftermath of the December shooting at the Abundant Life Christian School in Madison.
“We need to pass comprehensive school safety legislation to ensure no other parent in our state gets a call like the Abundant Life parents got earlier this year,” Haas said.
Investigators say a 15-year-old student at Abundant Life brought two handguns into the school building before using one of those guns to fatally shoot two other people and herself. Madison police have not yet disclosed how the shooter, who is too young to legally own a gun, obtained those weapons.
Evers cited the Abundant Life tragedy when he used federal funds earlier this year to create a statewide Office of Violence Prevention.
The governor’s latest budget proposal also includes several gun control measures. Among those are proposals related to gun storage, such as requiring a gun to be locked and secured at a home with a child under 18.
Under current Wisconsin law, there are criminal penalties for leaving a loaded gun within easy access of a child under 14.
But state law does not otherwise require that people lock up their firearms.
If you or someone you know is considering suicide, call or text the three-digit suicide and crisis lifeline at 988. Resources are available online here.
Wisconsin proposal to exempt gun safes from sales tax advances with bipartisan support was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.
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Sales tax is really what’s holding back folks from securing their firearms?
Really?
There should be a cap on how expensive this stuff should be before this gets phased out. Sounds just like another way for GOP and gunnuts to save a buck.
Can’t wait to see vids of folk’s multi-hundred-thousand $ gun bunkers that they just happened to save some sales tax on.
And so the need for safety and security of guns is somehow or other loaded onto sales tax reform! Ever wondered why the phone I’m using to write this has a password protected use and the car I drive a “fob” but the technology to deny any except the gun owner or others permitted by her/him use is what nonexistent? The absurdity of gun safes and gun locks versus a serious attempt to assure utilization by gun owners only is just that -absurd! Let’s talk about real gun safety and real gun locks and quit dabbling around! If only I can pull the trigger on a gun I needn’t worry about a toddler finding it or someone stealing it, then I can not only have anytime access (which is the argument against gun locks and gun safes)! Folk’s it’s 2025 not 1950!!
“Gun-related injuries are the leading cause of death for American children, killing more than 2,500 kids a year, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”
“And more than half of all suicides involve guns in Wisconsin and across the country.”
That surely says “It’s the guns, it’s the guns, it’s the guns!”, not where they are stored.