After 50% Tax Failed, CT State Rep. Proposes 35% Ammunition Tax to Fund ‘Gun Violence’ Prevention

Gilchrest:
“I want to punish the people who don’t vote for me so I can pretend I am giving money to the people who do vote for me.”

Why? Because gun owners will go to great lengths, including driving across state lines, to avoid the confiscatory tax.

It’s Connecticut, you would have to drive to where, New Hampshire, Maine, Pennnsylvania to save a couple bucks? Better to just fight it, 50% failed, 35% fails where does she stop? I thought it was illegal to place a tax on a particular group of people…

No comprehensive with these people ever, they must be fought at every turn. I’m sick and tired of being the boogie man. If these clowns want funding they should start by donating their own salaries. They don’t even know what they don’t know, but they’re more than happy to tell us what we need to do and pay for. I’m starting to
come around to the Powerserge point of view, 3 minute helicopter rides and brick walls for these traitor’s.

So all the mostly regular folks in the northern, eastern and western parts of the state get to literally pay for the constant crimes of the irregular people in the central and southern parts of the state.

Seems fair.

I think we need a Constitutional amendment named after the “Laffer Curve”.

Governments have an implicit – if not explicit – power to tax. There is no way around this fact. But the purpose of a tax is to raise revenue, not to implement some policy that a legislature deems worthwhile. Think about that. Do we really want legislatures to impose “sin taxes”?

A teetotaling smoker wants to tax alcohol but not tobacco. A non-smoking drinker wants the reverse. Do we really desire that they engage in a political battle to resolve their differences?

There is no easy or perfect solution to the dilemma I’ve presented. Yet, there IS a solution that would mitigate the very worst abuses (such as the $200 transfer tax on silencers).

If the nation could reach a consensus that taxes are for revenue then any “tax” that doesn’t produce revenue is NOT a legitimate use of the taxing power. It is merely “politics by other means”.

The economist Arthur Laffer popularized a fundamental idea found in the Federalist Papers. Basically, the idea is that if you tax something at a high enough rate that something, whatever it is, will cease to be found in ordinary commerce available to be taxed. It will disappear entirely or be hidden. A 100% income tax will produce no revenue; as would a 99% or 98% tax.

The problem can be depicted by a curve. At some point on the curve of tax rates vs revenue, raising the rate of tax will reduce revenue from the tax!

A “Laffer Tax” amendment would declare any rate of tax UN-Constitutional if it is so high that it produces LESS revenue than the tax would produce at a LOWER rate. It would be incumbent on government to prove that it’s rate of taxation is NOT higher than the rate which would produce the maximum amount of revenue.

Thus, we PotG would be protected from legislative manipulations of (for example) the Robinson-Pitman excise tax on guns and ammunition.

Probably more importantly, state and municipal taxes would be heavily constrained by interstate tax evasion. A state/municipality might be able to raise revenue at a penny-a-round rate of tax; but, at some rate such as 10 cents a round, its residents would buy across state/municipal lines and tax revenues would plummet. It would be fairly easy to show that any such state/municipal tax was NOT revenue-generating, and thus, UN-Constitutional (under my proposal).

https://twitter.com/Jilchrest=PhuckFace!

Got a better idea, PROSECUTE criminals! Yeah I know, doesnt jive with your agenda. Remember in November!

That’s an 8 head not a forehead lol!

Yeah, because it’s not like you can drive an hour in any direction and buy it in a different state! That goes for anywhere in NE.

Apparently, among her claims to fame, she’s helped push through a ban on plastic bags and mandatory licensing of “eyelash technicians.”

So yeah, I’m not surprised she thinks she can solve “gun violence” (you have NO idea how much I hate that term) by taxing law-abiding citizens some more.

Typical leftist “compromise.” She wasn’t able to drop a whole turd in our punch bowl, so her counter-offer is to pinch off half a turd (70% of a turd, actually). If this doesn’t work, maybe she will be supremely magnanimous and offer to drop just 25% of a turd.

We conclude that a State violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment whenever it makes the affluence of the voter or payment of any fee an electoral standard. Voter qualifications have no relation to wealth nor to paying or not paying this or any other tax.

Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections, 383 U.S. 663, 666 (1966)

This principle applies with equal force to the right to keep and bear arms.

Want to see her head explode? Propose a $1000 tax on abortions to support adoption services.

Maybe we should introduce a bill taxing Politicians. If “we all pay for gun violence” why not tax everyone? Why not tax people who buy books or use the public library an extra 35% to help drop outs have a better life. Why not tax car owners to help people living on the street without cars? Here’s a novel idea, why not add a 35% penalty tax on the prison sustenance of a person who uses a gun in a crime? Stat with a ball & chain and have them pick up trash two days a week. Then have them perform some other function that directly pays their victim’s family for three days a week. Let them have Sunday off to rest.

This is another idiot trying to do a ‘feel good’ tax on others so she can say she did something. Why do people arrest morons like this? Because they tax other people and they can feel good about that as well.

S.C.O.T.U.S. has been quite clear on this issue. States may not impose a tax that in any way would diminish the exercise of a right secured by the Constitution of the United States.

The point here is less harm, right?

How about a voluntary “Check this box to donate $1.00.”, or “Round your purchase up to donate?” on ammo purchases, right at the register. Goes to fund safety training n range day programs run by shooting interest orgs.

You wanna do “good work” n make people safer, have them learn how guns actually are, n the 4 rules.

Guns only go off if you operate them just right, n throw their output so precisely it’s measured in single inches, a football field away. If somebody got shot, somebody meant to throw a bullet there.

A few 100,000,000 guns n even more shots taken never harm anyone. Maybe work on the shooter’s choices.

Buy a reloading machine.

We HAVE a Cook county ammo tax. I drive to nearby Indiana and get all my ammo there. Or Will county…I don’t participate in the slush fund!😏

Doesn’t anyone realize by now that the DemoCommies in most of these states. (Re: CT, MA, NY, NJ,CA, etc…) Have conned every one out of there 2nd Amendment rights!? Made it privilege, put it behind a paywall, placed state moderators (police/STASI) in charge of a may issue privilege….HOW MUCH MORE EVIDENCE IS NEEDED TO SHOW TYRANNY?!!!

I expect some of the “children who are impacted by gun violence” and “mothers who are experiencing the pain of losing a loved one” are the relatives of violent criminals shot by their victims in self defense. I’m sure she disapproves of “folks who intervene right on the street to prevent gun violence before it occurs” by shooting such criminals.

What percentage of the taxed rounds will be used in actual “gun violence?” Say I buy $100 in ammo a month. I will now pay an extra $35 tax. So $420 a year extra tax. And I will cause zero gun violence. This should be called an “ammunition mandatory liberal causes donation.”

How about this idea: 35% bail/court fees tax on violent gun offenders and those committing gun crimes- stealing guns, prohibited persons in possession, people using guns in a crime.

Can’t you buy ammo by mail in CT? Often the companies will even pay shipping on larger orders.

You don’t need a lot of money for the kind of programs the representative is talking about. You DO need a lot of money for the kind of ‘anti-violence programs’ that get created to spend money- usually to “former” gang members who call themselves ‘conflict interrupters’ or something until they get thrown in prison for another 1st degree assault .

And what is this nonsense anyway? CT’s tax burden is one of the highest in the nations and it’s not like they’re dealing with having a chicago or baltimore in the state. It’s almost as if this has nothing to do with crime and everything to do with attacking hobbies involving guns.

From somewhere in the 1930’s, I Believe, there has been a Federal 10-15% tax on guns and ammo. It’s called”The Pittman-Robertson Act,” and was passed at the request of Sportsmen-Hunters. That money goes to funding projecr5s to support hunting. It also helps to fund Hunter Safety programs, and State Forests and State Parks
I will bet “dollars to donuts” that there has been a net loss to Washington State due to their new tax law. — Drive people to other places, and reduce those P-R funds. — They are based on population & usage.
This also means less $ coming in for public Rec.& Parks usage. [Either close some parks or start increasing admission fees.]
Great going you STUPID Politicians. Pass a “feel good/do nothing law,” and everybody loses.

Leftists (Democrats) are truly mentally ill when it comes to taxes. First, they use taxes to punish activities they don’t like (want to suppress). Then they tell us increased income taxes (taxing wealth) will boost the economy. Conclusion? Taxes are a magic pill for the nation.

So, she’s proposing a tax on ammunition to fund law enforcement is what it comes down to. There’s no way revenue from such a tax could ever be credibly applied to something that can’t be measured. Gun violence prevention means enforcing the law. Aren’t the citizens of CT already paying for such an effort? This would simply add income to the state’s coffers without making any appreciable difference in what she thinks it would. Silly.

I can think of 2 or 3 ways she could raise revenue.

Crook County Illinois put a .05 tax per round… The stores can’t give the stuff away. We goes elsewhere to get ammo…. The county can EAT IT….