According to Firearmchronicles
the state has never met a gun control law they didn’t like, it seems. Now, though, they want to raise money on the backs of law-abiding gun owners by taxing ammunition.
Gun rights activists in the state aren’t taking this lying down, either.
A proposal for a 35 percent excise tax on ammunition sold in the state to help pay the more than $1 billion cost of gun violence each year came under heavy fire during a public hearing Thursday.
Rep. Jillian Gilchrest, D-West Hartford, and other proponents are putting on a renewed push for a bill that’s been tried unsuccessfully before, and that would bring in $7 million annually in new taxes.
Gilchrest said her main rationale is that since there is no ammunition tax in the state, the entire cost of gun violence in Connecticut is footed by all residents when more than eight out of ten of them don’t even own a firearm. “Why should the 84 percent of those who don’t own guns pay the same as those who do?” asked Gilchrest. “The status quo is unfair to the 84 percent who don’t own guns and ammunition.” The difference is that the other remaining 16 percent are law-abiding citizens who aren’t responsible for gun violence either.
So-called gun violence is a criminal problem, not a gun problem. The keyword here is “violence.” Using the word “gun” as an adjective here simply specifies what type of violence we’re talking about, that’s all.
Yet if 16 percent of the population of Connecticut were committing violent acts on a regular basis, the state would be a virtual war zone. It would make Chicago look like Columbia, Maryland by comparison. Since nothing of the sort is happening, let’s not pretend Connecticut gun owners are responsible.
I’m not the only one who sees it that way, either.