On January 1, the Seattle City Council’s tax on guns and ammunition takes effect, thereby raising the prices on guns and ammunition for law-abiding citizens throughout the city.
Sponsored by City Council President Tim Burgess, the tax places another $25 on the price of a gun and “2 or 5 cents [on every] round of ammunition,” depending on the type of ammunition purchased.
According to The Seattle Times, the NRA filed a lawsuit in August to block the implementation of the tax, but King County Superior Court Judge Palmer Robinson “dismissed” the suit. The NRA cited the fact that Washington state has a preemption statute, which “forbids municipalities from passing regulations that impact ‘registration, licensing, possession, purchase, sale, acquisition, transfer, discharge, and transportation … or any other element’ of firearm ownership or commerce.”
But Judge Robinson viewed the tax as something other than regulatory in nature, and thereby upheld Seattle’s right to tax firearms and ammunition. Robinson opined that the tax on guns and ammunition is covered by “the City’s constitutional and legislative authority to impose taxes, which is separate from its regulatory authority under its police power,” and is therefore not hindered by the state preemption statute.
The NRA disagreed and promised to appeal the decision. Until then, law-abiding residents of Seattle will pay more for every gun and bullet they buy for self-defense within city limits.
Breitbart News previously reported that Chicago enacted this same tax in 2013. Homicides rose in 2014, and they rose even higher in 2015. In fact, numbers from the Chicago Tribune indicated that by November 23, Chicago homicides for 2015 had already exceeded homicides for all of 2014.
Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.
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