Veteran Seattle radio host Dori Monson on Monday ripped embattled Seattle Mayor Ed Murray Monday for a spike in shootings, asserting that the infamous “gun violence tax” adopted in 2015 has only “made it tougher for law-abiding people who want to defend themselves against this growing problem.”
Like a gun control initiative pushed into law by an initiative in 2014 that was heavily financed by wealthy Seattle-area elitists, the gun tax hasn’t prevented gun-related crimes. Initiative 594, passed after proponents spent more than $10 million on a lopsided campaign, mandated so-called “universal background checks.” It hasn’t prevented the wrong people from getting gun because they simply ignore the law.
The gun tax has resulted in two lawsuits, one filed jointly by the Second Amendment Foundation, National Rifle Association and National Shooting Sports Foundation, and a second filed by SAF and the senior editor of its monthly magazine, TheGunMag.com. The first lawsuit attacks the gun tax directly while the second alleges that the city has violated the state Public Records Act by withholding gun tax revenue information.
By no small coincidence, a New York lawmaker – Assemblyman Brian Kavanaugh (D-Manhattan) – has just unveiled new and more restrictive anti-gun legislation in the Empire State. According to the Legislative Gazette, “Kavanagh hopes the package will expand upon the provisions of the SAFE act, and further protect New Yorkers from gun violence.”
But fantasy doesn’t trump fact. New York gun laws haven’t stopped criminals in The Big Apple, and a new spate of legislation will not improve that situation.
Kavanaugh is chair of the New York Legislators for Gun Violence Protection. He’s being supported by New Yorkers Against Gun Violence.
Back in Seattle, KIRO talkmeister Monson writes in MyNorthwest.com that Mayor Murray, under fire for alleged sexual exploitation of young men three decades ago, has allowed gang and drug problems to grow in the city. A consequence of this has been an uptick in violent crime.
Monson erroneously recalled that the mayor started pushing local businesses to post “Gun Free Zone signs in their windows, but that was actually the handiwork of Murray’s predecessor, Mike McGinn, who is now running to replace Murray and get his old job back.
Instead of keeping drugs out of the city, Murray and equally-liberal Democrat King County Executive Dow Constantine have been advocating for “safe” injection sites for drug addicts. Murray’s critics, including Monson, have asserted that this makes Seattle a magnet for drug abusers.
The “gun violence tax” has another problem first reported March 22 by Liberty Park Press and TheGunMag.com. The city has at least acknowledged that the revenue from this tax – while refusing to provide specifics – fell far short of its predicted goal of $300,000 to $500,000 annually. The city would only say that the revenue figure is “less than $200,000,” a figure that raised more questions than it answered.
Monson appears to have summed up the frustrations he and fellow Seattle natives now feel about the direction their city and the county that surrounds it has taken under years of increasingly liberal policies. At the core of this changing environment are gun control measures that penalize the wrong people, ignore the obvious about crime and criminals, and serve only to bloat the body count.
Related:
Seattle Gun Tax Revenue Falls Far Short of 2015 Prediction
Politifact: New Data Refutes Old 40% Background Check Claim
What Is Seattle Hiding About Gun, Ammunition Tax?
