Didn't work out quite like you expected did it Seattle


When the City of Seattle passed a tax on all sales of guns and ammunition, the measure was hailed as a way to defray the rising costs of gun violence.

But since the tax took effect, those costs have only risen as gun violence in the city has surged. And the tax has apparently brought in much less than city leaders projected it would.

“How much data do you need?” asked Dave Workman, senior editor of TheGunMag.com and member of the Second Amendment Foundation. “The data says the law has failed to prevent what they promised it would prevent.”

Seattle City Councilman Tim Burgess introduced the tax in 2015. It puts a $25 tax on every firearm sold in the city and up to 5 cents per round of ammunition. The measure easily passed and took effect January 1, 2016. Comparing the first five months of 2017 with the same period before the gun tax went into effect, reports of shots fired are up 13 percent, the number of people injured in shootings climbed 37 percent and gun deaths doubled, according to crime statistics from the Seattle Police Department.

Councilman Burgess never returned calls and emails for comment. Dana Robinson Slote, director of communication for Seattle City Council, said she was “politely declining your invitation for an interview.”

In selling his gun tax to the public, Burgess predicted it would generate between $300,000 and $500,000 annually. The money would be used to study the root causes of gun violence in hopes of reducing the costs to taxpayers.

Seattle officials refuse to say how much the tax brought in the first year, only giving the number “under $200,000.” Gun rights groups have sued to get the exact amount.

But Mike Coombs, owner of Outdoor Emporium, the last large gun dealer left in Seattle, said the actual tax revenue is almost certainly just over $100,000, a figure based on information he says the city shared with his lawyers.

Coombs said storewide, sales are down 20 percent while gun sales have plummeted 60 percent.

“I’ve had to lay off employees because of this,” Coombs said. “It’s hurting us, it’s hurting our employees.”

Employees at the Big 5 sporting goods stores in Seattle also report anemic gun sales. But there’s evidence Seattleites are just going outside the city to buy their guns. Coombs also owns a gun shop in the nearby city of Fife. Sales there are described as robust.

Another gun dealer simply left Seattle and moved his shop, Precise Shooter, to nearby Lynnwood. Sergey Solyanik said business has never been better. He said the gun tax has probably worked out to be a net negative for Seattle when factoring lost sales tax revenue.

The money that has been raised by the gun tax is sitting in a holding account during the legal battle. But Seattle has dipped into its general fund to support the gun violence research study at Harborview Medical Center. Seattle paid a total of $550,000 for the study aimed at connecting gunshot victims with social services in hopes of not seeing them in the emergency room again.


When the City of Seattle passed a tax on all sales of guns and ammunition, the measure was hailed as a way to defray the rising costs of gun violence.

But since the tax took effect, those costs have only risen as gun violence in the city has surged. And the tax has apparently brought in much less than city leaders projected it would.

“How much data do you need?” asked Dave Workman, senior editor of TheGunMag.com and member of the Second Amendment Foundation. “The data says the law has failed to prevent what they promised it would prevent.”

Seattle City Councilman Tim Burgess introduced the tax in 2015. It puts a $25 tax on every firearm sold in the city and up to 5 cents per round of ammunition. The measure easily passed and took effect January 1, 2016. Comparing the first five months of 2017 with the same period before the gun tax went into effect, reports of shots fired are up 13 percent, the number of people injured in shootings climbed 37 percent and gun deaths doubled, according to crime statistics from the Seattle Police Department.

Councilman Burgess never returned calls and emails for comment. Dana Robinson Slote, director of communication for Seattle City Council, said she was “politely declining your invitation for an interview.”

In selling his gun tax to the public, Burgess predicted it would generate between $300,000 and $500,000 annually. The money would be used to study the root causes of gun violence in hopes of reducing the costs to taxpayers.

Seattle officials refuse to say how much the tax brought in the first year, only giving the number “under $200,000.” Gun rights groups have sued to get the exact amount.

But Mike Coombs, owner of Outdoor Emporium, the last large gun dealer left in Seattle, said the actual tax revenue is almost certainly just over $100,000, a figure based on information he says the city shared with his lawyers.

Coombs said storewide, sales are down 20 percent while gun sales have plummeted 60 percent.

“I’ve had to lay off employees because of this,” Coombs said. “It’s hurting us, it’s hurting our employees.”

Employees at the Big 5 sporting goods stores in Seattle also report anemic gun sales. But there’s evidence Seattleites are just going outside the city to buy their guns. Coombs also owns a gun shop in the nearby city of Fife. Sales there are described as robust.

Another gun dealer simply left Seattle and moved his shop, Precise Shooter, to nearby Lynnwood. Sergey Solyanik said business has never been better. He said the gun tax has probably worked out to be a net negative for Seattle when factoring lost sales tax revenue.

The money that has been raised by the gun tax is sitting in a holding account during the legal battle. But Seattle has dipped into its general fund to support the gun violence research study at Harborview Medical Center. Seattle paid a total of $550,000 for the study aimed at connecting gunshot victims with social services in hopes of not seeing them in the emergency room again.

“There’s a great deal of recidivism,” said Dr. Fred Rivara, a professor at the University of Washington’s pediatrics department who is directing the research. “These individuals are much more likely to come back with other gunshot wounds, to commit subsequent crimes, violent crime, to be murdered.”

Unfortunately, the researchers have had no shortage of gunshot victims to help and study. Seattle police say the increase in shootings seems to be tied to the drug trade – and revenge. Allison Anderman with the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, which supports gun taxes, said calling the gun tax and gun violence study failures is way too premature.

“The causes of gun violence are very complex,” Anderman said. “To say this one study is lacking because it hasn’t solved the problem of gun violence in Seattle is, frankly, laughable.”

Dave Workman doesn’t criticize the study, but he does think the city council should have predicted the results of the gun tax, such as gun dealers leaving with no drop in gun ownership. As for the gun violence, he says that too should not surprise anyone.

“All these gun control laws affect the wrong people,” Workman said. “The gang bangers don’t go in and buy ammunition at retail, at least not around here. It certainly hasn’t stopped them from getting their hands on firearms.”

http://www.foxnews.com/politic...fter-law-passes.html

quote:

Coombs said storewide, sales are down 20 percent while gun sales have plummeted 60 percent.

“I’ve had to lay off employees because of this,” Coombs said. “It’s hurting us, it’s hurting our employees.”

Employees at the Big 5 sporting goods stores in Seattle also report anemic gun sales. But there’s evidence Seattleites are just going outside the city to buy their guns. Coombs also owns a gun shop in the nearby city of Fife. Sales there are described as robust.

Anyone surprised?

They've generated $100k to study gun violence but have lost how much in revenue?

Shootings in Urban centers are generally
confined to specific low income urban areas

Those areas are rife with low educated, low income unemployed people who are taken advantage of by nefarious individuals involved in illicit actives, IE drugs, prostitution, etc.

Most of the guns are illegally obtained
or bought off the street, they don't pay taxes
on new gun purchases, much less set foot in a gun store for a legal 4473 based transaction.

Therefore we find shootings are a function of gangs and criminals trying to move product and protect territory or revenge acts between rivals that result in these shootings and murders.

Please send your check to me for my definitive research.

Just how predictable was this anyhow? Knotheads.

It was never intended to increase revenue.

It was intended to drive gun shops out of the progressive socialist Utopia of the City of Seattle by driving their customer base to outlying suburbs.

quote:

Originally posted by ulsterman:

quote:

Coombs said storewide, sales are down 20 percent while gun sales have plummeted 60 percent.

“I’ve had to lay off employees because of this,” Coombs said. “It’s hurting us, it’s hurting our employees.”

Employees at the Big 5 sporting goods stores in Seattle also report anemic gun sales. But there’s evidence Seattleites are just going outside the city to buy their guns. Coombs also owns a gun shop in the nearby city of Fife. Sales there are described as robust.

Anyone surprised?

They've generated $100k to study gun violence but have lost how much in revenue?

They took in much less than promised but still spent over $500,000 on a retarded study that the tax was supposed to pay for. And of course they are now taking in less revenue because of this ignorance inspired tax. So all they did was cost the city and tax payers more money and ended up with jack for it. Well done, liberals.

quote:

Seattle paid a total of $550,000 for the study aimed at connecting gunshot victims with social services in hopes of not seeing them in the emergency room again.

Hypothesis:
1. People causing violence don't buy their guns at stores.
2. People causing violence probably don't pay taxes anyway.

quote:

Originally posted by zoom6zoom:
Hypothesis:
1. People causing violence don't buy their guns at stores.
2. People causing violence probably don't pay taxes anyway.

Or those evil gun shops are hiding their sales and evading taxes which will prove the requirement all sales within Kitsap County need to be addressed and NO CASH SALES should be allowed.

This city ordinance wasn't about gun violence it was about the feelz.

I don't live in the people's rebublic, I'm in one of its satellite states, same feelz, different name. Council members admitted that this gun tax was to be about getting guns out of Seattle and if the tax made money that would be even better. They thought it would (because they are stupid) but they didn't care if it didn't. There is no remorse there for a bad decision and a bad outcome. Time to double down I expect.

There is a problem though and that is that the shootings are starting to leak out of MLK way and Rainier Valley and a couple of normals have been shot. And the problem there? Normals don't like to get shot and are howling and The People's Republic can't 1) admit it 2) do anything about it because they would then be 'pandering' to the normal community and 3) in their hearts feel that people just have to get used to it.

There must be a word for the metabolic change that over takes one when he finds that he now loathes a place that he chose on purpose and once loved.

There is no cynic like a lefty.

quote:

It was never intended to increase revenue.It was intended to drive gun shops out of the progressive socialist Utopia of the City of Seattle by driving their customer base to outlying suburbs.

100% Correct, former Pac NW resident that is SOOOO glad that I no longer live up there!

I fled San Francisco in '93 for similar, though far less impactful, reasons. I cannot live in an insane asylum.

quote:

Originally posted by Sig2340:
It was intended to drive gun shops out of the progressive socialist Utopia of the City of Seattle by driving their customer base to outlying suburbs.

It would appear it is working.

flashguy

quote:

Originally posted by Sig2340:
It was intended to drive gun shops out of the progressive socialist Utopia of the City of Seattle by driving their customer base to outlying suburbs.

Correct, which is also likely why the bill's author made himself scarce when the press was seeking comment for this article.

I actually talked with the guys down at Outdoor Emporium (the last major gun dealer left in Seattle) a couple weeks ago. They said the tax was supposed to raise $200,000 a year. But they gave Seattle less than $100,000. And as the last true gun dealer left in the city, there's no way the city could have made up the difference though whoever was left (pawnshops).

There's still a state-based legal challenge at the WA state supreme court based on preemption (city can't pass firearms legislation, only state can). Outdoor Emporium's manager that day said a response from the court was promised in June.

quote:

Originally posted by flashguy:

quote:

Originally posted by Sig2340:
It was intended to drive gun shops out of the progressive socialist Utopia of the City of Seattle by driving their customer base to outlying suburbs.

It would appear it is working.

flashguy

Too true. The invisible hand of economics works quicker than the tedious turning of the wheels of justice.

quote:

Originally posted by LDD:

I actually talked with the guys down at Outdoor Emporium (the last major gun dealer left in Seattle) a couple weeks ago. They said the tax was supposed to raise $200,000 a year. But they gave Seattle less than $100,000.

I thought I read that the tax was supposed to raise over $500,000.

quote:

Originally posted by Balzé Halzé:

quote:

Originally posted by LDD:

I actually talked with the guys down at Outdoor Emporium (the last major gun dealer left in Seattle) a couple weeks ago. They said the tax was supposed to raise $200,000 a year. But they gave Seattle less than $100,000.

I thought I read that the tax was supposed to raise over $500,000.

IIRC it was supposed to raise at least $200,000. The actual projected figure at the time it was pitched might have been $500,000, but at this point, 200,000 is just as much hot air as 500,000.

Indeed it is.

$100,000 Wow!
Bit baffled by this.

Is it simply the traffic on I-5 preventing these people from escaping Seattle to make their purchases?

I'm surprised they generated $100k?! Not sure why anyone would buy in Seattle city limits and not one of the surrounding cities?

quote:

Seattle City Councilman Tim Burgess introduced the tax in 2015....
...it would generate between $300,000 and $500,000 annually. The money would be used to study the root causes of gun violence in hopes of reducing the costs to taxpayers.

Dear Councilman Burgess.

Let me save you the $300-$500K per year: the root cause of 'gun violence' is criminals. Well, unless you have friends who need the $300-$500K, in which case I'm sure you can send the money to them and have them keep you in the dark about the cause of 'gun violence' for as long as you want.