Chicago’s Democrats have given up the idea of taxing your ammo in Cook County.
They plan to continue with the gun tax.
Chicago’s Cook County drops bullet tax, keeps gun levy
CHICAGO (Reuters) – The senior executive of the county that includes Chicago dropped a proposed tax on bullets on Wednesday but kept a plan to tax firearms to help defray healthcare expenses associated with the high rate of gun.
“It is very important to us to tax guns because we know that guns are the sources of the incredible violence we have in our neighborhoods,” Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle told a news conference. She said 29 percent of guns used in crimes in Chicago were purchased legally in suburban Cook County.
Under the plan, the county would impose a $25 tax on the purchase of firearms. The tax is expected to raise $600,000 in revenue in 2013. Preckwinkle abandoned a proposed tax of 5 cents a bullet because the tax in some cases would have exceeded the price of ammunition.
Preckwinkle and company assume that people are stupid, and will not alter their behavior. They assume that 24,000 guns will be bought in Cook County next year, and at $25 per gun, the tax will yield $600,000. I predict (because I’m not stupid like they assume I and all the rest of us are) that very few guns will be sold, when people can drive a few miles to the collar counties and buy the guns without paying the $25 tax. The tax will raise less money than it will cost to administer, will contribute nothing to public safety, and will discourage people from exercising their constitutional right to purchase a firearm. Which, of course, is the real agenda.
They are also trying to put the dealers in Cook County out of business. This makes no sense since the county will lose sales tax revenues but the anti-gun effort is not about “sense” or rational thought. This is all about an effort to disarm all of us all the while ignoring the real reason for their violence.
I suggested a poll tax of $25 per voter, per election earlier to help with the violence in Chicago.
Oh wait, that would be infringing upon the right to vote, wouldn’t it?!