Why Not Tax Bullets? - The American Interest

Published on: February 7, 2016

Land of the Rising Gun

Why Not Tax Bullets? Richard J. Gelles

The U.S. has had some success in reducing cigarette use, alcohol consumption, and even fuel consumption by increasing taxes on the consumable. Let’s try it with guns.

Richard J. Gelles is the Joanne and Raymond Welsh Chair of Child Welfare and Family Violence at the School of Social Policy & Practice at the University of Pennsylvania.

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KC G

This is the most ridiculous concept ever.

1) If you tax the bullets, people will just reload them. Shell casings are everywhere and you can practically reload one with stuff available from any hardware store… so forget about also controlling smokeless powder or primers.

2) Such an exorbitant taxation on ammo would constitute a de facto restriction on 2nd amendment rights as the SCOTUS has confirmed both that the right to ammo is implied and that taxation on a natural right is unconstitutional.

3) The only class of people this would effectively disarm are the poor. It’s voting taxes all over again, good luck with the civil liberties lawsuits.

4) Doing this would also instantly create a black market for cheap(er) ammo. You create a whole new breed and system of criminals and violence by making something an illegal commodity. The enactment of this sort of taxation would literally get more people killed through gang violence and organized crime than it could ever hope to save.

ETC… It was a bad plan then, and it’s a bad plan now.