While Seattle Mayor Ed Murray claims the city’s new $25-per-gun and 5-cents-per-round ammunition taxes will somehow address the issue of “gun violence,” in reality the new ordinance will only make life more difficult for gun shops in the city and for law-abiding residents wishing to purchase firearms and ammo in Seattle.
In effect, Seattle’s tax does nothing more than unfairly punish law-abiding gun owners for criminal violence. That fact, along with the state’s pre-emption law forbidding such an ordinance, has prompted the National Rifle Association, National Shooting Sports Foundation and other groups to file a lawsuit over the matter.
“Once again, anti-gun activists in Seattle have chosen to violate the Washington state Constitution and trample upon the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens,” said Chris W. Cox, NRA-ILA executive director. “They tried to enact similar regulations back in 2009 and lost. It’s a shame to see such a waste of public resources on issues the courts have already ruled to be unconstitutional.”
