Seattle’s Gun Violence Tax

Written By: Andrew Zuelke  |  Posted: Tuesday, March 22nd, 2016

In 2015, the Seattle City Council passed a so-called gun violence tax of $25 on the purchase of every firearm sold in the city and a two or five cent tax on every bullet.

Last December, a county judge dismissed a suit by groups opposing the tax. The law is now in effect. The judge said the new city ordinance represented a "lawful exercise of the city's taxing authority, not a regulation."

According to an article on kirotv.com (Seattle's Channel 7), "The city aims to raise $300,000 to $500,000 per year, to offset some of the costs of gun violence."

The article quotes City Councilman Tim Burgess as saying, "The NRA and its allies always oppose these common sense steps to shine light on the gun violence epidemic."

I suppose the common sense of using any extra revenue to hire on more police to pursue the real cause of gun violence in Seattle-criminals who won't obey gun laws and dealing with the mentally ill-isn't doable at all, is it, councilman.

There is one other similar tax on guns in Chicago which saw 468 homicides in 2015. Criminals who don't obey gun bans certainly won't sweat a gun/ammo tax.

Common sense tells us that those wishing to avoid the tax will simply go outside city limits of Seattle and purchase a firearm outside the reach of the city council. This tax will not bring in the revenue the Seattle City Council believes it will.

In the short term, the politicians in Seattle want more money to spend, and they believe this symbolic gesture will show people they are serious about gun violence. But I suspect these councilmen and progressives nationally have bigger, long-term goals in mind.

The first goal is to drive Seattle's gun shop owners out of business as gun buyers head out of town. Less sales, lower revenues, shops close.

Secondly, the intent of progressives in Seattle is to create a blueprint for fellow liberals to copy and implement around the nation.

Schemes like this tax are often "trial balloons" for the left. They want to see how much resistance will rise up against the idea first and just how much they can "get away with."

Ask yourselves, if the goal of these councilmen is to stop or fight gun violence in their city, and they believe this is the way to do it, then why is the tax so low? Why not bump it up to $100 or even $200 per gun sold right away? Because they know raising it too high too soon will increase resistance to their plan.

The end game of the left here is to get every city council, county board, and, if possible, every state government to adopt this measure and others like it. They must wait and see if any lawsuits which will be filed against the new taxes are successful before they can proceed. But if progressives prevail in the courts, the gun violence tax will increase dramatically wherever the ordinance/law is.

If progressives have taught us anything, it is that they are patient and have perfected the doctrine of incrementalism. If they cannot deny law-abiding Americans the right to keep and bear arms outright, they will chip away at that right piecemeal. To secure our individual rights, we constitutionalists must be just as vigilant and defiant as the left is patient and determined in their dream of "fundamentally transforming" America...one baby step at a time.

Andrew Zuelke is the State Chairman of the Constitution Party of Wisconsin and the Dodge/Fond du Lac CPoW Counties Chairman. The Constitution Party of Wisconsin is a totally pro-life, liberty, and traditional marriage/values party whose goal is to get Godly constitutionally-minded people into office at the local, state and federal levels. You can contact the party at or the Chairman at .