The dangerous new threat to gun ownership: ‘Gun Violence Taxes’

[Smokepole]

The dangerous new threat to gun ownership: ‘Gun Violence Taxes’

By ALAN GOTTLIEB and DAVE WORKMAN
Elko Daily Free Press
August 14th. 2017

Thanks to a tortured ruling by the Washington State Supreme Court, there is a dangerous new threat to gun ownership.

It’s called a “gun violence tax” and Washington’s high court sided with the City of Seattle, which adopted such a tax in 2015 in a gun control strategy to slither around the 34-year-old state preemption law that placed exclusive authority for regulating firearms in the hands of the State Legislature.

This gun tax violates the legislative intent of statewide uniformity by taxing law-abiding gun owners inside the city, and the retailers who cater to them. In Seattle’s case, the tax is $25 on the sale of each firearm, plus two to five cents for each round of ammunition sold.

[Roundballer]

Well, this was the intent of NFA '34, tax them out of existence.

Even though the Constitution says "shall not be infringed", we have SCOTUS decisions that claim that something would be of "no military use" and "reasonable restrictions for citizens".

Fortunately, our State law is better worded:

A local unit of government shall not impose special taxation on, enact or enforce any ordinance or regulation pertaining to, or regulate in any other manner the ownership, registration, purchase, sale, transfer, transportation, or possession of pistols, other firearms, or pneumatic guns, ammunition for pistols or other firearms, or components of pistols or other firearms, except as otherwise provided by federal law or a law of this state.

But we do have to take that one to a court fight regularly.