Law abiding citizens hit with gun tax, criminals get away scot-free

gunsGun control doesn’t have to entail an outright ban; farearms can more easily be taxed out of the hands of law abiding citizens.

As reported by Reuters, Cook County, Illinois, which includes the City of Chicago, has enacted a firearm tax which is applied to the same of every firearm. The measure was approved Friday by the Cook County Board of Commissioners by a 9 to 7 to vote.

The tax itself is modest — $25 per firearm — and is expected to raise $600,000 in revenue in 2013. But consider this: The top marginal income tax rate in 1913 was an equally modest 7 percent.

The firearm tax was first proposed by Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, who also sought a 5 cent tax on each bullet sold. This effort failed when it was pointed out that this could exceed the cost of the ammunition itself.

After the firearm tax was approved, Preckwinkle told reporters, “We want to highlight this issue of gun violence and we also want to add to our resources to address it.”

The actual tax being levied, though insignificant, is a foot in the door for the Cook County government. Its enactment Friday will make it easier to simply increase the tax in the future. What’s worse for gun owners, the commissioners may change it from a one-time point-of-sale tax to an annual levy, which would make firearm collection a thing of the past.

Another issue is that although funds derived from the tax are slated to aid victims of firearm violence, the vast majority of such violence is committed by criminals using guns purchased on the street. Because no taxes will be collected from these sales, the law abiding citizen is once again called on to pay for the acts of the criminal.

The full Reuters article can be read here.

See a related article, “Gun Owners fear an Obama second term.”

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