And we say there’s no “magic bullet” to fix the economy…
A Cook County official has proposed a surtax on the sale of every bullet and firearm in the nation’s second-largest county. The tax was proposed as part of the upcoming budget in an effort to quell escalating gun violence in the Chicago area.
The proposal, which is already under fire (pardon the pun) from gun rights advocates, includes a 5-cent tax on the sale of every bullet and a $25 tax for the sale of every firearm. If it were to pass, the tax would generate about $1 million in annual revenue.
The official behind the bill, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, believes that the tax will help stem violence in the area, saying, “[t]he violence in Cook County is devastating and the wide availability of ammunition only exacerbates the problem.”
How bad is the violence in the Windy City? As summer wrapped up, homicides were up 31% from 2011. The rate represents a leveling off from a high during the first quarter of the year, where the murder rate was up nearly 60% over the same time period in 2011. And not once but twice in 2012 (February 19 and August 18), violence in Chicago claimed the lives of six people in a 24 hour period. There’s no question that it’s a serious problem.
Many wonder, however, whether taxing guns and ammo is the solution. Preckwinkle says yes, claiming that a third of the guns used in crimes in the county had been purchased legally. It is not clear, however, how many of those guns were used by the original owner to commit crimes, as opposed to those which were stolen or otherwise distributed after the initial purchase.
That’s just the beginning of where Preckwinkle’s proposal is flawed. To be fair, I don’t like guns. I don’t own a gun and I don’t want to own a gun. That said, many of my family and friends do own guns and they own them legally – especially those folks I know in the rural South who use guns to hunt. And I’m willing to bet that those folks aren’t the ones driving up homicide rates across the country. In fact, the statistics bear that out – just ask Preckwinkle.
But let’s say – just for the sake of argument – that the guns used in homicides in Chicago (and other murder hotspots around the country, including, sadly, my own Philadelphia) are purchased legally. And let’s say – again for the sake of argument – that the folks who bought those guns are the ones who are pulling the trigger. Does a nickel tax per bullet really make you rethink the choice to kill someone? Is there a genuine thought process that goes on that makes a potential murderer think, “Well, I would kill both of those folks but that extra five cents on the second victim would just be too much? I have to save up this month.” It’s absurd, right? Because the whole notion that tax – especially a disproportionately small tax such as this – would control what would otherwise be illegal behavior is absurd.
There’s no indication that slapping taxes on legal behavior prevents illegal behavior. Taxes on booze don’t stop drunks from getting into cars and killing people (or committing other crimes). So let’s call this tax what it really is: a revenue raiser. It’s a sin tax on gun ownership. Whether that’s fair is another story but at least that rationalization for the tax makes sense. The other – preventing gun deaths – while an admirable goal, is simply ridiculous from a tax policy standpoint.
