IRS targeting gun owners for punitive taxation?

The U.S. federal government collected $20.6 billion in taxes on alcohol, tobacco, firearms and ammunition in fiscal year 2009, up 41 percent from the previous fiscal year.

In October 2009, firearms and ammunition excise tax collection climbed 45 percent from the previous fiscal year, the greatest annual increase in the firearms tax revenue in the agency’s history, the report said. By comparison, the average annual increase for fiscal years 1993 to 2008 was 6 percent.

A Gallup Poll conducted in early October 2009 said one possible explanation for the surge in gun and ammunition sales could be that more than 50 percent of the Americans who owned guns and some 41 percent of all Americans believed that President Obama would “attempt to ban the sale of guns in the United States while he is president.”

Obama, who supports reauthorizing the ban on assault weapons but has not made a push to do so, did sign a law that included allowing people to bring guns into national parks this past February.

It was unclear why the agemcy included the guns and ammunition information from October 2009. Calls and e-mails to the TTB seeking clarification were not immediately returned. - [source]