Seattle City Council approves $25 tax for legal firearm sales

“City government can and must pursue innovative gun safety measures that save lives and save money”, Burgess said.

Council President Burgess said, about mandatory reporting, “This simple requirement will help law enforcement trace guns used in crimes and solve more cases”. Seattle’s City Budget Office estimates that the gun violence tax will raise between $300,000 and $500,000 per year: revenue raised under the tax will be earmarked for violence prevention.

“Things like technology have facilitated the ease with which they can use runners”, Arnold said, adding, “When the moment’s right, the gun can be retrieved”. “As it has in other areas of policy, Seattle can lead the way in local solutions”.

Opponents argue the measure will push gun shops out of Seattle and have threatened to sue, claiming the city does not have the authority to enforce the measure.

The city council has moved forward with the proposal despite Washington’s strong firearms preemption statute that was intended to stop just these sorts of local restrictions.

The tax may be challenged by local gun rights groups, however, as there is a state law that prevents any Washington state city or town from regulating firearms, according to the Seattle Times.

“Seattle gun stores would simply go out of business”, Solyanik wrote on his store’s website.

Solyanik predicted gun store owners would file a lawsuit against the city, stalling and potentially killing the law’s implementation.

Before leaving the park, they gathered around the Urban Peace Circle, a bronze sculpture dedicated more than 20 years ago to Seattle children killed in shootings. Baltimore doesn’t have a gun tax, but it has roughly the same population as Seattle.

Burgess had originally proposed a tax of 5 cents per round on all ammunition but subsequently reduced that to 2 cents for rounds of. This is not good enough, and voters said as much when nearly 55% of his constituents voted against him in the primary. The vote, Murray said, “demonstrates the commitment of this city and this community to lead on the ongoing national epidemic of gun violence”.

“While action at the federal level and in many other jurisdictions remains gridlocked, we are moving ahead to address an issue so damaging to the young people of Seattle, especially young people of color”, Murray said. 22 caliber and smaller.

The 8-0 vote Monday afternoon on the tax that will be imposed on those purchasing firearms will provide revenue for gun violence prevention programs. Instead, it would be specifically funneled into an intervention program, in which people hospitalized because of gun violence would meet with doctors and social workers before being released.

The legislation approved on Monday also would require individuals whose firearms were lost or stolen to report it within 24 hours of discovery.