Seattle's ‘Gun Violence Tax’ Defeats NRA Challenge in Court Ruling

Two shots at the NRA on one day

(See post below)

© George Frey / Reuters

Seattle, Washington is now the second city in the country with a “gun violence tax,” thanks to a judge’s ruling. 

The National Rifle Association and other gun rights organizations say it violates state law and are planning to appeal the decision.

King County Superior Court Judge Palmer Robinson called the city’s action a "lawful exercise of Seattle's taxing authority" on Tuesday, but the imminent appeal will argue it violates Washington state law that prohibits localities from legislating gun laws.

Sales of firearms and ammunition, in the meantime, will be taxed to generate funding for programs aimed to research and prevent gun violence. The Seattle City Council originally passed the law unanimously in August, with an aside that mandates gun owners notify authorities when firearms are lost or stolen.

There is a law against using federal funds for gun violence research? It's an incredibly asinine law that violates all common sense, decency, and sanity. It's only purpose is to prevent the public from knowing the depth of the violence caused by guns and the incredible ease with which one can access weapons in America. In keeping the public in the dark, arms merchants can continue to sell guns with neither restriction nor conscience regardless of the carnage. 

So, I applaud Seattle and Chicago for finding a way of funding gun violence research without using federal money.

"We are going to fight this vigorously in defense of a state preemption law that has served Washington citizens well for more than three decades," Alan Gottlieb, founder of the pro-gun rights group Second Amendment Foundation (SAF), told reporters.

"It is unconscionable for Mayor Ed Murray and the City Council to codify what amounts to social bigotry against firearms retailers and their customers," Gottlieb wrote in a statement.

The tax of $25 per gun and 2 to 5 cents on ammunition rounds will drive customers out to neighboring cities, hurting local businesses, critics of the city law say. City officials predict the taxes to raise as much as $500,000 annually.

Modeling the ordinance after what Cook County, Illinois and Chicago have adopted, Seattle City Council President and sponsor of the law Tim Burgess says it is a "legitimate and appropriate way to raise revenue for gun safety research and prevention programs,"

"Judge Robinson saw through the NRA's distorted efforts to put gun industry profits ahead of public safety," Burgess added.

In other words, he's a Democrat!

The NRA, SAF, and the National Shooting Sports Foundation joined with two gun owners and two local gun store owners to sue the City Council in August, referring to the city law as "a piece of propaganda."

"It’s unfortunate the court chose to ignore the law and embrace the Seattle City Council’s anti-gun agenda," Lars Dalseide, NRA spokesman, said in a statement.

According to Public Health-Seattle and King County, from 2006 to 2010 the average number of shooting deaths was 131, with 536 being hospitalized for gunshot wounds. Officials also noted that the medical treatment of 253 shooting victims at Harborview Medical Center in 2014 cost $17 million in total direct costs – and taxpayers were responsible for $12 million of it.

Has the United States Been Taken Hostage by the NRA?

'90 deaths a day': US doctors call for end to ban on gun violence research

 Did you even know there was a ban on gun violence research?

Why?

© Baz Ratner / Reuters

A group of US doctors has called on Congress to lift a decades-long ban that prohibits the use of federal money for gun violence research. The move comes as mass shootings in the US are on a rise, with estimated 90 people dying daily in gun-related violence.

The group presented a petition signed by more than 2,000 physicians from across the USA, calling on Capitol Hill to put an end to the so-called Dickey Amendment, which has been blocking the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) from carrying out research on gun violence for the last two decades.

Doctors for America led a press conference on Wednesday and were joined by a handful of Democrats. Several speeches were held at Capitol Hill, stressing that gun violence in the US is a public health crisis that needs urgent solutions.

“Gun violence is a public health problem that kills 90 Americans a day,” Dr Alice Chen, executive director of the lobby group Doctors for America, said. “Physicians believe it’s time to lift this effective ban and fund the research needed to save lives. We urge Congress to put patients over politics to help find solutions to our nation’s gun violence crisis.”

Another doctor at the presser, Nina Agrawal, a pediatrician from the South Bronx, expressed her disappointment with how little has been accomplished in the past 20 years. “In my career, I’ve seen children lives saved from measles, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, motor vehicle accidents… because of federal scientific data and research. It’s frustrating that the CDC is not permitted to do the same type of research for gun violence.”

The calls for more funds for research into gun violence come as the Americans deal with the shock of two mass shootings in just one week. Last Friday, November 27, a gunman opened fire at a Planned Parenthood facility in Colorado Springs, leaving three dead.

This was followed by a tragic mass shooting in San Bernadino, California, on Wednesday, where 14 people were killed and 17 more wounded. Police said a couple went on a shooting spree at a regional center that aids people with disabilities. They were killed during a shootout with police after a manhunt.
Of course, this was an act of terror, so not your typical mass shooting, but still a mass shooting.

The US has one of the world's worst records for gun crimes, (in the developed world) with the latest attack in San Bernardino being the 353rd mass shooting in 2015. Moreover, there are about 33,000 Americans that are killed every year with firearms.

The doctors’ groups compared gun violence to traffic accidents, stating that both kill around the same number of people each year in the US. The doctors added that the federal government has allocated $240 million a year for traffic safety research during the past two decades, while no money has been spent on analysis of gun violence. 

The ban that blocks the use of federal funding for gun violence research stems from 1996, when Congress passed the amendment following pressure from the National Rifle Association as well as various pro-gun lobbyists. Previous efforts to overturn the ban have failed. President Barack Obama has unsuccessfully asked for $10 million for gun violence research in the past two budgets.

My first impulse was to say that this is borderline insanity, but there is nothing 'borderline' about it! I can think of very few things more sinister in American politics than the Dickey Amendment. It is entirely about the NRA and it's sponsors doing whatever it takes to ensure the gun-making and sales industry does not slow down in America, regardless of how many thousands of lives are lost.

My most distressing concern about all this is the duping of American Christians into believing that this has something to do with the Second Amendment. It has nothing to do with the Second Amendment - it was never created so that anyone in America could purchase assault weapons designed to do one thing - kill Americans.

The Second Amendment ruse is simply how the NRA , and gun-makers and sellers, manipulate gullible Christians.

“For over 20 years, politicians have put a gag order on public health research for gun violence only to score political points,” Representative Carolyn Maloney, a Democrat from New York, said. “On public health matters, it’s critical we listen to doctors – not politicians.”

The attempts to lift the ban have been squashed by Republicans, who continue to deny the link between gun violence and public health.