A legislative committee approved last week a bill to create a third statewide sales tax holiday.
House Bill 360 – sponsored by Rep. Chris Sells, R-Greenville – would make the last weekend in August an annual Second Amendment Sales Tax Holiday, exempting ammunition, guns and hunting supplies from state sales and use tax.
Alabama already has two sales tax holidays every year: the Back-to-School Sales Tax Holiday in late July and the Severe Weather Preparedness Sales Tax Holiday during the last weekend of February.
The bill’s fiscal note estimates that the holiday would decrease annual sales tax receipts to the state Education Trust Fund by $386,000. If counties and municipalities opt in and remove their local sales tax as well, that could decrease their funds by an estimated $506,000.
Rep. Barbara Drummond, D-Mobile, told the House Ways and Means Education Committee she objected to the bill because firearms are a leading cause of death for young people across the country at its Wednesday meeting.
“It’s real ironic to me that we can give a tax relief or exempt folks on Second Amendment rights, but we cannot save lives,” Drummond said. “When you look at the number of people and how much violence is happening throughout the entire state of Alabama, it is just unfathomable to me that we would do this and not do something to safe storage for our young people so the guns won’t make it on campuses.”
If passed, the 2026 holiday would start at 12:01 a.m. on Friday, Aug. 28, and last until midnight on the following Sunday.
Here are the items included in the exemptions.
Ammunition:
- cartridge cases
- primers
- bullets
- propellant powder designed for use in any firearm
Firearms
- shotguns
- rifles
- pistols
- revolvers
- other handguns
Hunting supplies
- archery equipment
- firearm and archery cases
- firearm and archery accessories
- hearing protection
- holsters
- belts
- slings
- suppressors
The bill now heads to the House floor.