Precise Shooter's statement on Tacoma Gun "Tax"

It appears that Tacoma's City Council is considering a tax similar to the one enacted in Seattle in 2015.

Details are here.

This "tax" is a wet dream of antigun activists, because it allows them to circumvent WA state law (RCW 9.41.290) that pre-empts firearms regulation by localities.

RCW 9.41.290 State preemption. The state of Washington hereby fully occupies and preempts the entire field of firearms regulation within the boundaries of the state, including the registration, licensing, possession, purchase, sale, acquisition, transfer, discharge, and transportation of firearms, or any other element relating to firearms or parts thereof, including ammunition and reloader components. Cities, towns, and counties or other municipalities may enact only those laws and ordinances relating to firearms that are specifically authorized by state law, as in RCW 9.41.300, and are consistent with this chapter. Such local ordinances shall have the same penalty as provided for by state law. Local laws and ordinances that are inconsistent with, more restrictive than, or exceed the requirements of state law shall not be enacted and are preempted and repealed, regardless of the nature of the code, charter, or home rule status of such city, town, county, or municipality.

This was written so cities like Seattle - or Tacome - could not ban guns. Something that they in the past very much wanted to do, and weren't particularly shy about.

Well, for now they cannot ban guns - but using this "tax" they can ban gun dealers. WA Supreme Court in its wisdom (without a doubt, influenced by Bloomberg & Co, Inc) has ruled that making guns prohibitively expensive to sell through taxation is not a regulation, - and is therefore allowed. I cannot help but wonder if the ruling would have been the same if the case were about taxing abortion supplies.

Make no mistake - this is not about money. It is about running gun dealers out of the city. And anyone who would tell you otherwise (this law is advanced by Council members Ryan Mello, Catherine Ushka, and Tacoma Mayor Victoria Woodards) is either a liar, or an incompetent.

When this "tax" was enacted in Seattle, Seattle government promised $300k-$500k in revenue, using analysis that would not be defensible at a high school math level, let alone in any college class. Glen Lee, Seattle Finance Director who produced this gem, boasts an undergrad degree from University of California at Berkeley.

No media outlet questioned the ridiculous projections. Our "journalists" just parroted idiocy spewed by Seattle politicians. Not surprisingly, the "tax" has never achieved even $100k in yearly revenue, as I previously predicted.

Of course, what this "tax" generated needs to be offset by loss of revenue from general sales tax. Prioir to this "tax" being implemented, Seattle had only two stores that specialized in selling guns - and just three sizeable gun operations including Outdoors Emporium, which was a general purpose sporting goods store with a large gun counter.

Since the "tax" was implemented, both gun stores - including Precise Shooter - moved out of town, because it was financially impossible to compete with suburban gun stores who do not have to collect this "tax". With this, we took general sales revenue that would be otherwise going to Seattle to Lynnwood. Last year - despite a "Trump slump" in guns sales - this was just over $74000. So at least this much should be subtracted from the $93000 that the gun "tax" generated.

This is just our store, of course. Other sales moved out of town as well: Discount Gun Sales moved to Bothel, and Outdoor Emporium lost at least half of gun sales to out of town stores as well (including their other location in Fife).

So in total it is pretty obvious that the gun generated a significanly negative impact on Seattle General Fund. And of course the same - or worse - is going to happen in Tacoma. Likely worse, because Tacoma has a much more robust firearms trade compared to Seattle.

None of this, of course, would matter to politicians such as Mello, Woodard, or Ushka, who in this case report to a higher authority - Moms Demand "Action", or Giffords and Bloomberg PACs.

To the rest of Tacoma's business community - today they came for the guns stores, and you let it pass because you don't own a gun store. Eventually, though, they will come for you. Will there be anyone left to stand for you?