Two Los Angeles city councilmen have introduced a proposal to tax firearm and ammunition sales in the city. Councilmen Paul Koretz and Paul Krekorian, who are known for supporting any and every anti-gun proposal imaginable, are now pushing Council File 15-1188, which seeks to impose a tax modeled on one passed in Seattle earlier this year. The measure would add a $25 tax to each firearm sold, as well as between 2 and 5 cents of tax to every round of ammunition sold.
In urging Seattle’s mayor to reject the ordinance, Lawrence Keane of the National Shooting Sports Foundation wrote, “Imposing this tax is akin to taxing licensed pharmacies to combat a heroin epidemic”—and the same could be said of California’s copycat scheme.
Indeed, despite having some of the strictest, most ridiculous and redundant anti-gun laws in the U.S., Los Angeles also has a murder rate about 44 percent higher than the national average.
