By Dave Workman
Senior Editor
Legal action against the City of Seattle is almost a certainty following the unanimous adoption of a special tax on firearms and ammunition sales within the city that critics say violates Washington state’s longstanding preemption statute.
Alan Gottlieb, founder of the Second Amendment Foundation and chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, told TGM that legal action against the gun tax is on the horizon. What remains to be seen is whether other Second Amendment groups will join in that lawsuit as they did in 2009, when Seattle tried unsuccessfully to ban firearms in city park facilities.
SAF founder Alan Gottlieb
At that time, SAF and CCRKBA were joined by the National Rifle Association and Washington Arms Collectors. This time around, because the gun tax directly impacts firearms retailers, there’s also the potential for industry involvement.
The measure slaps a $25 tax on the sale of every firearm and a nickel on every cartridge except for .22-caliber rimfires, on which the tax will be two cents. City Council President Tim Burgess pushed the plan with the forecast that it will generate between $300,000 and $500,000 in tax revenues that will be used to promote so-called “anti-violence” projects in the city.
Opponents say that’s “pie-in-the-sky” optimism because there is a strong likelihood that three storefront gun shops in the city will move elsewhere, resulting in a net loss of revenue.
In reality, critics argue, these are gun control efforts and that violate the preemption statute, which has been used as a model for similar laws in other states over the past three decades.
The last time the city tried to skirt the preemption statute, gun rights organization took quick action to stop it. Under former Mayor Greg Nickels, a founding member of the Mayors Against Illegal Guns lobbying organization, the city tried to ban guns in city park facilities. At the time, the city argued that this was an administrative regulation, not an ordinance. The court, however, did not buy the argument. The city lost in King County Superior Court and unanimously at the state court of appeals. In the process, Washington’s preemption statute was actually strengthened.
By then, liberal Democrat Mike McGinn had replaced Nickels, but he also pushed the lawsuit. The McGinn administration was no more successful with the attempted gun ban than his predecessor. When the city tried to appeal to the state Supreme Court, the justices declined to review the case.
Under McGinn, the city also tried a gun buyback in response to the Sandy Hook school shooting in December 2012. That resulted in a fiasco as gun rights activists gathered along the streets leading to the parking lot where the buyback was located. They paid cash for firearms including some that were collectors’ items, rather than see them destroyed in exchange for gift certificates.
The action comes more than two years after a similar gun tax was levied by the Cook County, Illinois board. In 2013, the “gun tax” took effect in Cook County, which encompasses Chicago, yet the number of homicides has not dramatically declined. In fact, according to a July report on WLS, the ABC affiliate in Chicago, homicides are creeping up over last year.
WLS News reported that for the first six months of 2015, there had been more homicides than at the same time last year. In June, the report said, “there were 13 more homicides in Chicago than June of 2014.”
The Seattle P-I.com noted this morning that yesterday’s vote became “an opportunity to make money” for the Washington Alliance for Gun Responsibility. In an e-mail blast bragging up the 8-0 unanimous council vote, WAGR’S Renee Hopkins declared “We did it!” The e-mail was essentially an appeal for funds: “The gun lobby called these proposals ‘dead on arrival’ — and is almost certain to sue the city to overturn them. We have beat the gun lobby before, and we aren’t backing down now. Chip in a donation right now – let’s defend our gains and keep up the momentum!”
