BELLEVUE, WA – Almost two years after the City of Seattle adopted a hastily-crafted “gun violence tax” ostensibly aimed at reducing so-called “gun violence,” city police statistics show a startling 17 percent increase in the number of police calls for gunshots, and an alarming 30 percent increase in the number of shooting victims.
“That ‘gun violence tax’ is been a monumental failure, and we are challenging Mayor Ed Murray and the Seattle City Council to publicly admit it,” declared Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, based in nearby Bellevue. “You simply cannot provide better evidence than the Seattle Police Department’s crime statistics of such a colossally stupid idea that has not worked.”
Almost immediately after the gun tax was signed by Murray, CCRKBA’s sister organization, the Second Amendment Foundation, was joined by the National Rifle Association and National Shooting Sports Foundation in an historic lawsuit to overturn the tax on the grounds that it violates the state preemption law that places sole authority to regulate firearms in the hands of the State Legislature. It is the first time all three gun rights organizations have partnered in a joint legal action.
SAF has also filed a separate lawsuit, along with the senior editor of its monthly magazine, TheGunMag.com, over Seattle’s failure to disclose revenue from the gun tax under the state Public Records Act. The city will only say the tax as brought in “less than $200,000,” which is well below revenue forecasts that ranged between $300,000 and $500,000 that were used to justify adoption of this gun control tax.
“The other night there was a homicide at Alki,” Gottlieb noted, “and the city is already ahead of previous years’ statistics on the number of reported shooting incidents. Thirty-six people have been shot so far this year, including four who have been killed. The Council and Mayor Murray should be ashamed now that the dismal failure of their gun control scheme has been exposed. They deceived Seattle citizens about how much their tax would raise and what it would accomplish, and they should be held accountable.”