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Gun Control & RKBA

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beevul

(12,194 posts)
Tue Aug 25, 2015, 02:31 PM Aug 2015

X-post: We're the NRA and we're responsible gun owners, just not responsible for the cost... [View all]

Last edited Tue Aug 25, 2015, 03:05 PM - Edit history (1)

"We're the NRA and we're responsible gun owners, just not responsible for the cost of gun
violence."

NRA sues over Seattle's adoption of 'gun violence tax'

http://www.komonews.com/news/local/NRA-sues-over-Seattles-adoption-of-gun-violence-tax-322709641.html

Officials modeled the tax after a similar one in Chicago's Cook County, Illinois; the NRA said Chicago is the only other city with such a measure. Seattle's tax, which would take effect in January, would add $25 to the price of each firearm sold in the city, plus 2 or 5 cents per round of ammunition, depending on the type. The revenue would be used for gun safety research and gun violence prevention programs.
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According to Seattle City Council President Tim Burgess, who proposed the tax, the direct medical costs of treating 253 gunshot victims at Harborview Medical Center in 2014 totaled more than $17 million. Taxpayers paid more than $12 million of that total. City officials estimate that the new tax would bring in $300,000 to $500,000 a year, but gun shop owners told council members those numbers were inflated. They said the law would cost them customers and sales and could force them to move out of the city.


Comments by the original poster:

Gun violence costs the tax payer $12 mil and the tax will bring in a max of $.5 mil or 4% of the damage done to the taxpayer. How is that burdensome?

Run of the mill pistols sell for $300 to $400 each depending on make and model, much more for specialty items and AR-15s go for $600 to $800 each, again depending on make and model. How is an extra $25 going to sway the decision to purchase to "too expensive" category?

Two to five cents a round. Is that so draconian? A NATO 5.56 round (AR-15) sells for .45 each. A 5c increase makes it .50 each and is a 10% increase. If you fire 500 rounds at the range that's $25 or about what your lunch will cost for the day. So while the % increase looks large, the actual cost increase isn't that much. Nine MM pistol ammo is about .25 a round, so the % increase is twice that of the 5.56 but the cost increase for 500 rounds is the same, about $25 or $1 for a box of 20. The stuff I shoot is at least $1.00 a round so I wouldn't even notice the % increase and after 50-60 rounds your shoulder is ready for a rest so the actual cost increase wouldn't be noticeable either.

People who drive on US highways pay a fuel tax to maintain those highways, why isn't it appropriate for people who shoot to pay a tax to cover the cost to the state of that activity?

Oh, I forgot, gunz is sooooooo special.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/12629546




Just a couple comments by me:

People who drive on US highways pay a fuel tax to maintain those highways, why isn't it appropriate for people who shoot to pay a tax to cover the cost to the state of that activity?


The author hopes you don't see the slight of hand here. The activity of Shooting, in general, costs the state nothing. The tiniest subset of shooting, gun violence, is what costs the state.

Two to five cents a round. Is that so draconian?


Cost is beside the point. If you're placing financial responsibility for gun violence on people that didn't commit any, you're wrong. And yes Virginia, taxing the lot to pay for the .01 percent that misuse guns, is doing exactly that.

This is the equivalent of placing a tax on speech to cover the costs of those who shout fire in theaters and incite riots.
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