I am not surprised

Nor should you be.

Seattle City Council President Tim Burgess is proposing the city tax gun and ammunition sales and require owners to tell police about lost and stolen firearms.

Seattle would tax gun and ammunition sales and require owners to tell police about lost and stolen firearms under a pair of bills coming before the City Council.

City Council President Tim Burgess is proposing the legislation, saying revenue from the new tax would fund gun-violence-prevention programs and research.

“Gun violence is very expensive,” Burgess said, noting that the direct medical costs of treating 253 gunshot victims at Seattle’s Harborview Medical Center last year surpassed $17 million, with taxpayers covering more than $12 million of that. “It’s time for the gun industry to help defray those costs and this is a very reasonable way to do it.”

The tax, imposed on gun sellers, would be $25 on each firearm sold in the city and five cents on each round of ammunition.

So, $25 tax per gun sold and a $2.50 tax per 50rnd box of ammunition sold within the city limits.

First: This won’t happen. It’s called “preemption”. State law says they can’t.

Second: Can you tell what kind of retail businesses they are trying to drive out of the city?

Third: This is a blatant attempt to cover the cost the city has to pay for criminal activity via the wallets of law-abiding citizens. If they truly wanted to cover those costs, they would bill and lien the criminals for the cost of the investigations.

Fourth: I don’t know where, but I read something similar to the following phrase somewhere not too long ago “If you cannot show how your proposal would stop criminal activity, then you are simply pushing a policy item.”