Seattle Ammunition Tax Disappoints Gun Control Extremists
Seattle Ammunition tax imposed a $25 tax on every firearm sold and 5 cents for each ammunition. Despite the gun control advocates praising the tax as an important step in tackling gun violence, the policy has consistently failed to achieve its objectives. Proponents of the anti-gun measure projected that it would earn the city over $500,000 annually. Authorities planned to use the proceeds to conduct gun violence research at Harborview Medical Center.
While calling the policy a disappointment is an understatement, the initiative only managed to collect a measly $85,352 out of the projected $0.5 million in 2019. This amount was an increase, compared to the $77,518 collected in 2018. Councilman Tim Burgess, a militant proponent of the ammunition tax, said he was waiting until a year passed to show the impressive results of the ammunition tax.
In the first year of its introduction, the city collected $103,766 in 2016. The decent amount raised false hopes for the gun controllers. However, the amount collected fell in 2017 and 2018, amounting to just $93,220 and $77,518, respectively. The current increase of a paltry $7,800 will do nothing to cover the shortfall of $414,648.
Gun rights groups such as the NSSF and the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) opposed the tax on state preemption but failed. The groups said introducing ammo tax was discriminatory and disguised gun control. NSSF warned that the amount was impossible to raise, but Washington courts turned a deaf ear.
As predicted, the Seattle ammunition tax has dire unintended consequences on law-abiding citizens and businesses that support the economy of the city. Firearm businesses moved outside the city limits and fired employees after experiencing losses because of reduced patronage.
Mike Coombs, the owner of Outdoor Emporium and Sportco, laid off several employees after experiencing a loss of $2 million. He said he lost 32% of Outdoor Emporium clients as well as 12% of Sportco customers. Sergey Solyanik, the owner of Precise Shooter, moved out of the liberal hovel and established his business in Lynnwood.
Unlike other policies, gun control activists cannot skirt around the effectiveness of ammunition tax because numbers don’t lie. The dismal performance indicates they were wrong about ammunition tax, as they have been wrong about other things too. It is possible they knew all along of the inevitability of the failure of the tax.
The city shot itself in the foot by demanding tax, which makes it impossible for businesses to survive in the city. However, the administrators do not care about the negative consequences because their sole interest is politically-motivated gun control at the expense of the safety and the economy of Seattle.
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