Nearly every political action has at least one unintended consequence.
The city of Seattle is beginning to find this out firsthand after it passed an ordinance that levies a tax on each firearm and every round of ammunition sold within the city.
Seattle gun tax failure? Firearm sales plummet, violence spikes after law passes https://t.co/1n3R0RFvPm
— Fox News (@FoxNews) June 15, 2017
Its proponents hailed the measure as a way to defray the costs of gun violence.
Instead gun sales have plummeted and dealers are laying off their workforce if not closing up shop altogether.
And gun violence along with its costs has skyrocketed.
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Proponents of the measure say give it time — all the data aren’t in yet.
“How much data do you need?” asked Dave Workman, senior editor of TheGunMag.com and member of the Second Amendment Foundation, aCCORDING to Fox News. “The data says the law has failed to prevent what they promised it would prevent.”
Seattle City Councilman Tim Burgess introduced the tax in 2015. It puts a $25 tax on every firearm sold in the city and up to 5 cents per round of ammunition. The measure easily passed and took effect January 1, 2016. Comparing the first five months of 2017 with the same period before the gun tax went into effect, reports of shots fired are up 13 percent, the number of people injured in shootings climbed 37 percent and gun deaths doubled, according to crime statistics from the Seattle Police Department.
Councilman Burgess never returned calls and emails for comment. Dana Robinson Slote, director of communication for Seattle City Council, said she was “politely declining your invitation for an interview.”
When Burgess was peddling the gun tax to his fellow council members, he claimed it would bring between $300,000 to $500,000 annually to the city coffers every year.
City officials refuse to say what the actual revenue is — only that it’s “under $200,000.”
This isn’t surprising to Mike Coombs, owner of Outdoor Emporium, who believes that the actual figures are probably only slightly to the north of $100,000 after witnessing a 60 percent decline in gun sales.
“I’ve had to lay off employees because of this,” Coombs said. “It’s hurting us, it’s hurting our employees.”
Clip via Fox News Channel
This came as no surprise to conservatives.
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Hmm, who could have predicted a gun tax would ruin sales, and result in more violence, not less? Oh, just about anyone who isn’t a liberal?
— JDoors (@DuaneEH) June 15, 2017
Umm criminals don’t buy guns & ammo from a store so this is a tax on responsible gun owners. This is why I would never live there.
— ★ Julie (@Superrajraj) June 15, 2017
Just like Chicago. It has some of the toughest gun laws in the country, so people go to Indiana and bring them back to sell illegally.
— Kenneth Baker (@kdbaker58) June 15, 2017
Once again liberals trying to control something they fail to understand. They punish honest citizens and coddle the criminals. Ridiculous
— Mark (@mgurn75) June 15, 2017
The results were also no surprise to Workman.
“All these gun control laws affect the wrong people,” Workman said. “The gang bangers don’t go in and buy ammunition at retail, at least not around here. It certainly hasn’t stopped them from getting their hands on firearms.”
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Increase the gasoline tax and people drive fewer miles. Declare a predator an endangered species and livestock gets killed. Levy a tax on firearms and ammunition and … well, you know the rest.
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