The Second Amendment Foundation writes [via ammoland.com]: Seattle’s “gun violence tax” revenue has once again failed to meet predictions, demonstrating once again that this was really a thinly disguised gun control scheme that was sold to the public as an effort to reduce so-called “gun violence,” the Second Amendment Foundation said today.
Figures released by the city under a Public Records Act request by the senior editor of SAF’s monthly magazine TheGunMag.com show the city collected $93,220.74 last year, a decline of nearly $10,000 from the amount collected in 2016 and far below the $300,000 to $500,000 revenue originally predicted by its proponents on the Seattle City Council when the tax was hastily passed almost three years ago.
“Once again,” noted SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb, “Seattle’s pie-in-the-sky gun tax revenue forecast has been proven to be a complete failure, essentially like other gun control fantasies.
The revenue data only reinforces our claim in a lawsuit against the tax that this was a gun control scheme to drive firearm sales and gun stores out of the city, which it obviously did.
“It is important to remember that the city would never have released this data if it hadn’t been for our lawsuit in 2016 that forced Seattle to come clean and turn over the revenue figures,” he observed. “Otherwise, we believe the city would have continued to conceal this information because it is embarrassingly short of their prediction.”
“This was, and remains, a First Amendment issue,” said TheGunMag.com Senior Editor Dave Workman. “The public, and especially Seattle taxpayers, have a right to this information.”
“The city probably spent more on legal bills to keep the information confidential, and on manpower to comply with the Public Records Act and last year’s court order than it has so far collected,” Gottlieb estimated. “But this is a pretty good example of what gun control is all about.
It always begins with grandiose promises, it invariably hurts the wrong people, it doesn’t stop criminals, and in the end those responsible stubbornly refuse to admit their real goal was to further erode gun rights. And the public winds up essentially worse off than they were before.”
The Second Amendment Foundation (www.saf.org) is the nation’s oldest and largest tax-exempt education, research, publishing and legal action group focusing on the Constitutional right and heritage to privately own and possess firearms. Founded in 1974, The Foundation has grown to more than 650,000 members and supporters and conducts many programs designed to better inform the public about the consequences of gun control.
They have the same BS in Cook county,ILL…and a 25$tax added to new handguns. A slush fund “for the children”. Pushed by the same old cow Toni Preckwinkle who passed a sugery drink tax and had it repealed after a gigantic outcry and enormous business loss. I buy all my ammo across the border…
While I think the drink tax is BS it would probably be more useful than the gun tax in terms of public health.
What with diabetes being the #6 or #7 killer of Americans every year and heart disease (linked to obesity which is linked to sugary drinks) being #1.
Also there’s nothing in the Constitution about sugary beverages, so no pesky 2A type problems to worry about, making it easier fascism to install.
Hey now, don’t be fat shaming, everyone has a right to diabetes if they want it. ‘Murica!
Indeed they do but I can tell you from 1st hand experience that you REALLY don’t want diabetes.
Except it’s not useful because the city is trying to have it’s cake (heh) and eat it too; it’s projecting increased revenue from the tax (and budgeting with that in mind) AND claiming that it will reduce consumption.
You can’t have both happen, and in truth often neither happens because people just keep consuming and stock up out of the high-tax area. Maybe it could work on the basis of a larger area but a city? Nonsense.
Yea, I remember decades ago when Kalifornia passed a tobacco tax then cried and complained because lots of folks quit smoking and the state wasn’t making enough money. Breaks my heart.
As was pointed out at the time, the sugar tax falls hardest on the poor. People with cars and skip over the city limits and but in caseload lots. The poor, or those what depend solely on public transportation, will find it difficult to do the same. Try buying a case of soda, then getting it on the bus.
When your income and transportation is limited,you are often stuck buying at the nearest store, no matter the cost.
Seattle’s tax wasn’t about a tax, its entire purpose was to force dealers outside of its borders, and, with (I think) only one exception it has done just that.
I lived next to the last gun shop in Shit-attle when the gun and ammo tax passed they moved out of the city limits. I think it was the last gun shop in the city.
The Idiots passed a soda tax too in the city, I can drive six blocks out of the city limits and buy my sodas there. Morons!
Nope. Outdoor Emporium in SODO is still selling guns and ammo. They were part of the lawsuit that failed.
Don’t know how much longer they will last though. I bought 7 guns from them, and the last one had that tax on it. I had forgotten about it, and felt too far along in the process (I was literally checking out) to back out.
That will be the last gun I buy there. I hate to not support the store, but I can’t support that tax. Fortunately, they have a sister store in Fife (Sportco), and my most recent purchase (Ruger SR9C) was there, as will whatever I decide to get next.
And by “decide” I mean “when the rush has died down and they have a Ruger PCC in stock.”
Love Sportco, and as long as you’re that far south, there’s always Federal Way Discount Guns.
Pretty much sums up everything the Seattle leaders do these days. The only thing I can say they have had great success in is growing the homeless industry. Its a prefect progressive utopia.
A tax is not going to stop a person from drinking a sugary drink. With all the info out there about Diabetes, if that doesn’t stop people from consuming unhealthy drinks, screw them. Diabetes will come soon enough. Now a firearm tax could indeed stop poor folks from obtaining a key method of defending themselves or family members and is definitely a violation of the 2A.
Once again, we see that the People’s Democratic Party lacks even the most basic understanding of economics and free will. While building a baseball field in the middle of a corn field may bring dead players back from the other side when it comes to economics “if you tax it they will not come” does not work.
Just because you slap a tax on something does not means ‘free’ money and spending more to defend a stupid tax then what the actual tax generates is even dumber. No wonder these morons believe in single payer healthcare… after all, if you tax people enough it will pay for anything, right? Right? Bueller?
While building a baseball field in the middle of a corn field
30yrs later continues to attract thousands of tourists annually. And no homeless in the area.
This is nothing about taxation. This is about running guns and businesses out of the city. The politicians don’t care about tax revenue.
Correct. And it almost completely succeeded. The fact that revenue is still coming in suggests that there is some gun store or ammo supply house still operating there, but it may not last much longer.
Outdoor Emporium. It’s part of a small chain of camping/hunting/fishing supply stores around the Seattle area. Outdoor Emporium is the only one in Seattle itself. The owner was a party to the lawsuit against the city, and has spoken about how much the tax has hurt his business. After it was passed, he laid off at least two employees. I wonder if he will keep the location open much longer.
Seattle is full of gay liberal trash, seriously. General population in the city is skinny jeans fairy boys, no real men, just a bunch of weakling career baristas and homo wimps.
You sure do think about homosexuality a lot.
Net loss of thousands of dollars in tax revenues when shops and business left Seattle. So not only a paltry amount coming in from the gun tax – actually an income hit overall.
I’m glad to see that the white socialist progressives who run the state of Washington are following the same racist gun control laws that were used to make guns more expensive for newly freed slaves in the south. At least these white socialists are out of the closet and following the same path that was used by racists long ago to deny Firearms to black people and anyone else that they did not like.
Seattle is full of gay liberal trash, seriously. General population in the city is skinny jeans fairy boys, no real men, just a bunch of weakling career baristas and homo wimps.
Projecting.
@ Guest
It’s not projecting. That is just what society is raising. Tolerant, girly men. That programming starts in grade school. Society is raising cowards.
If it’s true, it’s it still projection?
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Why would anyone buy a firearm or ammo in the city of Seattle?.all you have to do is go out of town a few miles and viola,no Seattle tax!…its just the city that is implementing that tax,not king county.