Posted on 11/20/2019 2:51:03 AM PST by marktwain
On 12 November 2019, the Tacoma City Council passed its controversial tax on guns and ammunition. The tax is based on a similar tax in Seattle. The vote was unanimous, 8-0. 112 people were reported to have spoken on the issue.
To an ordinary reader, the tax would seem to violate the Washington State preemption law. The Washington Supreme Court held differently in 2017. It voted that a tax was not a regulation. One judge dissented, writing it was obvious the tax was aimed specifically at firearms. From the opinion:
That different inquiry centers on the language of the preemption statute itself. Here, RCW 9.41.290 uses deliberately broad language that clearly encompasses both regulations and “laws and ordinances” if they have any relationship to “the registration, licensing, possession, purchase, sale, acquisition, transfer, discharge, and transportation of firearms, or any other element relating to firearms or parts thereof.” RCW 9.41.290. Seattle Ordinance 124833 has a very close relationship with the “purchase, sale, acquisition, [and] transfer” of firearms–it targets them! Thus, while a uniform local tax that incidentally hits on sales of this product (while taxing various and sundry products) might not have a sufficient relationship with firearms to suffer preemption, this ordinance-which targets only firearms-certainly does. I therefore respectfully dissent.
The Tacoma tax is scheduled to go into effect on 1 July 2020. It will be $25 per firearm sold, 2 cents per cartridge of .22 caliber or less, and 5 cents for each larger cartridges.
Seattle's tax has had expected results. Dedicated gun shops have been driven from the city. According to preciseshooter.com:
(Excerpt) Read more at ammoland.com ...
I personally prefer the former, but will assist with the latter...
I’m guessing Tacoma gun owners will henceforth be making their firearms-related purchases outside of the city.
Frank Zappa had the answer to B:
I want a steamy little Jewish Princess
with a garlic aroma that can level Tacoma........
Exactly what was in my mind!
just listened to the song yesterday!
Frank certainly had a way with words.
The market for re-loading equipment in Tacoma just improved.
One of the better resources out of many:
https://www.midwayusa.com/reloading-supplies/c?cid=9315
The British tried to tax tea. Maybe in Tacoma, they will seize city government ammo and throw it in the harbor.
The Tacoma Tea Party!
L8r
Law-abiding gun owners will live elsewhere.
Your numbers are low, almost certainly by a factor of at least 2. But keep in mind that several million good people will also die if things get ugly.
As with NY whose governor said “your kind isn’t welcome here”, Tacoma leaders will be happy to see law abiding gun owners leave.
We have the same taxes in Cook County, illannoy.
Will cost me an extra 7 minutes to get to Lakewood.
I expect to be one of them. I'm deep behind enemy lines. Our state government has a dim view of personal freedom and the Constitution. It interferes with "fairness".
As they used to say in Russia, "The Czar would fix it if he knew." "The Czar is very high, and very far away."
When do the Checkpoints start at the City Limits?
I always like to find the silver lining in the precedents set by the Left. If the Washington State Supreme Court says a tax is not a regulation, GREAT, then go with that. Time to institute a poll tax (it’s not a regulation now is it) in the more conservative counties. There’s really no end to how this could be used. Perhaps a $10,000 tax on Spanish speaking school users. Or maybe an illiterate tax for those who can’t read. Or a yearly use tax on 24” wheels. I love it when the Left sets the bar!
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