I've talked a bit about the proposal in the Georgia state Senate to create a sales tax holiday for firearm-related products. This is a huge thing and I'm a supporter of it.

However, I also understand that while the proposal makes a lot of sense, it's also kind of a middle finger to anti-gunners throughout the state. This is one of the things I like about it, if I'm being honest.

Sure, with the timing of when the holiday will fall, there will be benefits for hunting, but I'm not sure how significant that will be.

Yet a bill in the Georgia General Assembly, there are a couple of alternate bills that's not just an easier sell but might ultimately be better in the long run for the state.

Lawmakers are looking at multiple proposals that would give a tax break on gun safety equipment and gun safety classes.

So, how do you incentivize gun safety? And how can you help people get the tools or knowledge to prevent accidental gun deaths?

One is SB 340, the legislation sponsored by Sen. Kirkpatrick, R-Marietta.

It would make gun safes and safety equipment tax-free all year.

...

In the house, a similar proposal is working its way through committee. HB 971 would create a tax credit for purchasing gun safes or gun safety classes.

Now, let's understand that both of these measures could co-exist with the sales tax holiday, so I'm hoping that they all pass. As such, I might be wrong calling them "alternate bills" since I don't actually see them competing. All of these are independent and non-contradictory, really.

These two, however, are going to be easier sells.

More specifically, these are far more difficult to justify opposition to.

Actual safety is something no one is going to argue against. Making it easier for people to get gun safes is a good thing and has garnered bipartisan support in other states. This should be able to pass relatively easily because anti-gunners are going to be hard-pressed to justify opposing efforts to make gun safes easier to obtain.

Where Georgia is going off the beaten path, though, is with tax credits for gun safety training.

Georgia has no training requirement for purchases or carrying a firearm. They never have and, hopefully, never will. Yet no one thinks gun safety training is a bad thing. No one thinks gun safes are bad things.

By offering tax credits for them, assuming the credit is sufficient, then you're incentivizing people to take those steps whereas they might not do so ordinarily.

What's more, it may incentivize people to take more than one gun safety class, thus reinforcing the lessons they might learn and thus making people more likely to remember what they were taught.

Now, how does an anti-gunner argue against that? I mean, you could make a fiscal argument against these if you wanted to, and I'm sure some people probably will, but it won't be from the anti-gun side since they tend to be very into spending taxpayer money anyway.

My hope is that all of these measures pass and we end up seeing fewer firearms misused as a result. From teen suicide to gun thefts, all sorts of benefits can come about from this, so here's hoping they all become law.