Dori: Tacoma gun tax will only hurt businesses, law-abiding citizens

Tacoma City Councilmember Ryan Mello is proposing a gun tax as an answer to all of the city’s gun violence.

Under Mello’s plan, you would pay a $25 fee when you buy a gun. You would also pay 2 cents for every round of ammo .22 caliber and below; higher-caliber ammo would be 5 cents per round.

Government cannot and will not fix this problem. The breakdown of the family is the root cause of the problem. You can tax people all you want, but until the family dynamic changes, you’re going to have lost souls joining gangs.

With this gun tax, you are just punishing the vast majority of gun owners, who are law-abiding people. You see, gang members don’t buy guns at gun stores — they buy them hot on the streets. This is the fantasy of all the people who think they can solve problems like this with more laws.

Record Tacoma homicide rate shows crime is king

Whether you like it or not, there are 400 million guns in America. They are not going to magically disappear overnight. When you make laws that will make it more difficult for the legal gun owners who just want to defend themselves, guess what? The gang members and the burglars are going to be the only ones with guns. And they’re not going away, I’m sorry to say. Nothing will change that — there will always be some criminals.

A gun store owner in Tacoma told Q13 that this gun tax will put him out of business. You are just taxing the law-abiding citizens and running small businesses out of town.

How politicians still do not get that is beyond me.

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