This afternoon King County Superior Court Judge Palmer Robinson issued an order upholding the City’s gun violence tax. A copy of the ruling is available here.
We established the gun violence tax as a legitimate and appropriate way to raise revenue for gun safety research and prevention programs. The NRA and its allies always oppose these common sense steps to shine light on the gun violence epidemic. They have blocked funding for basic gun safety research at the federal level for decades. But in Seattle it is different. Judge Robinson saw through the NRA’s distorted efforts to put gun industry profits ahead of public safety.
Approved in August, the gun violence tax would require firearms dealers to pay $25 for every firearm sold and $0.05 or $0.02 for every round of ammunition sold, depending on the caliber of ammunition. The City Budget Office estimates the gun violence tax will raise between $300,000 and $500,000 a year to be used for gun violence research and prevention programs.