Tax-free shopping brings out hunters in Louisiana | The Town Talk

By Jeff Matthews • jmatthews@thetowntalk.com • September 5, 2009

Louisiana Archery and Sports Center in Pineville was supposed to open at 9 a.m. Friday.

But the customers couldn’t wait that long.

“We normally open at 9, but we had customers outside looking to get in at 8,” said manager Beth Thomas. “So I let them in. I didn’t want to keep people waiting. I know some folks were stopping by before they had to get to work.”

Friday marked the opening day of the first “Louisiana Second Amendment Weekend Sales Tax Holiday,” a three-day period when purchases of firearms, ammunition and hunting supplies are exempt from state and local sales and use taxes.

If business at Louisiana Archery and Sports Center on Friday was an indication, it should prove to be popular locally. The crowd stayed steady into the early afternoon at the store on La. Highway 28 East, and was expected to stay strong into today. The store is not open Sunday, although the holiday extends into that day.

“Accessories, guns, stands, bows,” Thomas said. “We’re selling a lot of everything. Anybody wanting to purchase big-ticket items, this is the time to do it.”

Liz Meyer of Ball was birthday and Christmas shopping with her mother for her husband and son. She bought a floating shotgun case, a pair of shotgun shell belts and Thermacell mosquito repellent.

“I’m here to cash in on no sales tax like everybody else,” she said.

Sean Lacombe of Deville bought two deer stands priced at $200 each, saving him close to $40.

“I’m here strictly because of the tax-free weekend.” he said. “It definitely helps when you’re spending $400. I was going to purchase them a couple of weeks ago, but I decided to wait until today to save some money.”

Hunting is big business in Louisiana, with more than 250,000 estimated hunters spending hundreds of millions of dollars a year on the sport. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reported that more than $200 million in hunting equipment was purchased in Louisiana in 2006. The FBI conducted gun checks on roughly 250,000 firearms purchased in Louisiana in 2008.

Unlike the general sales tax holiday on Aug. 7-8, which waived state taxes but not local taxes, this weekend’s holiday covers both. That can add up to as much as 9 percent of purchase price.

The bill establishing the event makes it an annual event to run the first Friday-Sunday in September.

“I think a lot of people have been waiting for this weekend,” Thomas said. “We had the one a few weeks ago, even then people were saying, ‘I’m going to wait until September to get the full effect.’”

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