Seattle won't release its gun tax revenue; here's why Meanwhile, the city's gun sales are being outsourced to the suburbs

Steven Aragon looks down the sights of some new stock in the gun room at Outdoor Emporium on Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2016. Shop owners say Seattle's new gun and ammunition tax enacted this year has hurt sales and the city hasn't been transparent with the funds collected. less Steven Aragon looks down the sights of some new stock in the gun room at Outdoor Emporium on Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2016. Shop owners say Seattle's new gun and ammunition tax enacted this year has hurt sales and the ... more Photo: GRANT HINDSLEY, SEATTLEPI.COM Photo: GRANT HINDSLEY, SEATTLEPI.COM Image 1 of / 14 Caption Close Seattle won't release its gun tax revenue; here's why 1 / 14 Back to Gallery

Mike Coombs, owner of Sodo's Outdoor Emporium, says he has laid off three employees and taken a $2 million hit in sales so far in 2016.

His customer count, he says, is also down by 32 percent.

Meanwhile, Coombs says his other store -- Sportco in Fife -- has seen a 10 percent to 12 percent increase in sales.

He blames the Seattle gun violence tax, passed last year and implemented Jan. 1. The ordinance charges a $25 tax for every firearm sold in the city and 5 cents for every round of ammunition of .22 caliber or greater. Given that ammunition comes bundled in boxes, those nickels can add up.

The revenue from the tax is intended to fund a program at Harborview Medical Center that aims to reduce the aftereffects of gun violence. At the time the ordinance passed, the city estimated it would collect $300,000 to $500,000.

Read more about the city's take on the tax.

Outdoor Emporium is one of Seattle's few stores where people can buy new guns -- that is, ones not from a surplus store or pawn shop. Coombs estimates he's sent the city $60,000 through the third quarter from the gun tax, but says the city has also lost more than $600,000 in sales tax due to his plummeting sales.

"That's kind of targeting a single business, wouldn't you say?" Coombs posited.

That leads Coombs and other gun tax opponents to wonder: How much money has Seattle collected from this tax? It's the subject of a lawsuit filed by reporter Dave Workman and the Bellevue-based Second Amendment Foundation in September.

In the spring, Workman sought the city's tax revenue from the gun violence tax, but the city government declined to divulge the information, claiming that such records could compromise the identities of the people who have paid the tax.

Even though Workman, editor of TheGunMag.com, clarified his request to indicate that he wasn't interested in taxpayer information, just an aggregate figure, the city maintained its stance. Its logic: When the tax base is so small, release of the aggregate data could reveal the identity of individual taxpayers and how much they paid, which is protected information by state law. Furthermore, only some businesses file taxes quarterly, while others do so annually.

Seattlepi.com filed the same public records request at the end of September and received the same response.

Councilman Tim Burgess, who championed the passage of the tax, says the city doesn't want to release the revenue information until a full year has passed.

Court battle

The gun violence tax has been contested in the court system. The National Rifle Association filed a lawsuit last year, claiming the tax violates a state law that prevents cities from regulating firearms. However, the tax was upheld by the King County Superior Court. The state Court of Appeals has referred the case to the state Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, Harborview Medical Center confirmed this week that because the ordinance remains contested in court, the tax revenue remains untouched and the hospital is instead getting the money for its gun violence program from the city's general fund.

"Our view is that the gun tax has always been a charade," said Steven Fogg, one of the attorneys in both the lawsuit against the ordinance and the public records complaint.

Fogg argues that the city passed the law to try to snuff out gun sales, not to raise money. He says the city's refusal to disclose the tax income demonstrates that the law is a ruse.

"Our view is that the reason for that is if they were to reveal how little has been collected, it would also reveal the real purpose behind the ordinance, which is to regulate, not to tax," he said.

Coombs thinks the city is trying to hide the law's failure.

"For them not to share the numbers ... tells me they're not probably getting to their goals," he said.

Burgess contends that the law was only meant to raise dollars for gun violence reduction efforts.

"It had nothing to do with regulating firearms or discouraging the purchase of firearms," he said.

Outsourcing sales

Sergey Solyanik, owner of Precise Shooter, sold firearms out of his shop on Aurora Avenue near Green Lake until the gun violence tax was passed.

As soon as he could, he took over the lease of a Lynnwood business going out of sale and moved his shop there.

"I couldn't continue business (in Seattle)," Solyanik said. "... It just wouldn't work."

Even during the two months between the time the tax took effect and he was able to move his business, he stopped selling firearms and only sold accessories. He felt the markup he'd have been forced to apply to his guns and ammunition would have rendered him noncompetitive with gun shops from nearby cities.

""It's not like we were trying to stick it to the city or anything," Solyanik said. "It was just financially unreasonable."

Now, he says, his Seattle customers make the drive to Lynnwood.

Similarly, Coombs encourages his frustrated Seattle customers to make the trip to Fife.

His shoppers typically don't come by just for guns and nothing else -- they'll buy accessories, apparel and other outdoor equipment along with their firearms or ammunition, which compounds his sales dive at his Seattle store, he said.

If his Seattle customers aren't headed to his Fife store, they're shopping at other businesses in Bellevue or Kirkland.

He might even move Outdoor Emporium -- which has been open since 1975 -- to Issaquah or Bellevue, should sales continue to decline, he said.

Coombs already does his part to tackle gun safety, he contends. He partnered with Seattle Children's Hospital in giving away 3,000 gun safes and will continue to hand out more in February.

He also routinely turns away customers who are either under the influence of drugs or alcohol or somehow demonstrate an inability to safely handle guns.

On the matter of declining sales taxes from gun sales, Burgess said it's not affecting the city's bottom line. Retail sales tax across the city is increasing year over year, he said.

Data from the city indicate that as of May, the city experienced a 10 percent year-over-year growth in taxable retail sales.

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