The "demonization" of Second Amendment Rights

I want you to notice something in this headline:

U.S. pockets $20.6 bln in sin taxes in FY'09

Now read this quote:

Americans armed themselves to the teeth and paid through the nose to have a smoke, according to a U.S. government report released on Wednesday.

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, according to the annual report of the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau.

Part of the U.S. Treasury Department, the TTB credited most of the $6 billion rise in revenues collected to the increased taxes on the tobacco industry as a result of the Children's Health Insurance Reauthorization Act passed in February 2009.

There was also a spike in tax collection from the sale of guns and ammunition, said the report from the agency that has an annual budget of $99 million.

So now owning a firearm and buying ammunition is referred to as a sin that must be taxed. Can the government tax a constitutional right to bear arms? Well..it appears that they are.