The day after California's move to add yet more taxes to the retail price of firearms, ammunition, and "precursor parts" went into effect, it was challenged by local residents and gun rights groups. 

Assembly Bill 28 – penned by California Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel (D- Encino), chair of the Legislature's "Gun Violence Prevention Working Group" – passed the legislature largely on party lines and was signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom. The measure, backed from the start by national anti-gun groups such as Everytown and Giffords, adds a mandatory 11 percent excise tax to the sale of guns, ammunition, and some related components, with the estimated $150 million annual revenue garnered from it set aside to fund a variety of anti-gun programs. 

With AB28 going into effect to the applause of Newsom's office on Monday, it was challenged Tuesday in a San Diego County Superior Court. The plaintiffs are two private citizens, Joshua Gerken and Danielle Jaymes, who purchased guns and ammunition on Monday and had to pay the new tax. They are joined by a host of 2A member organizations: the Second Amendment Foundation, California Rifle & Pistol Association, National Rifle Association, and the Firearms Policy Coalition. 

The lawsuit seeks to have the court rule the tax violates the Second Amendment and to permanently enjoin the state from enforcing its provisions. 

"We are challenging the constitutionality of the tax, as adopted by Assembly Bill 28,” explained SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb in an email Tuesday night to Guns.com. "We contend in the lawsuit that this 11 percent tax is unconstitutional because it literally taxes conduct protected by the Second Amendment. There is no analogous evidence such a tax was ever applied at the time of the Founding era, as required by the 2022 Supreme Court Bruen ruling."

Attorney and SAF Executive Director Adam Kraut explained that AB 28 "gives the State of California the power to destroy the exercise of a right protected by the Constitution by singling it out for special taxation. If allowed to stand, this tax could be expanded, and California could ultimately impose similar excise taxes on other constitutional rights it dislikes. This will not stop with a tax on the right to keep and bear arms."

The defendant is Nicolas Maduros, director of the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration, in his official capacity, and the case is James v. Maduros.