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(Followup) Plan would tax bullets, pay for victims
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
Plan would tax bullets, pay for victims' treatment
Critics say proposed 5-cent levy would penalize the law-abiding.
April 14, 2002
The Associated Press
OAKLAND -- An Oakland lawmaker has devised a plan to offset the costs of treating gunshot wounds in the state's emergency rooms: a bullet tax.
State Sen. Don Perata, D-Oakland, announced a proposed constitutional amendment to add a 5-cent tax to every firearm cartridge sold in California.
"There is no reason why the public should bear these costs," he said during a Friday news conference at Children's Hospital in Oakland. "These are preventable injuries."
Critics called the proposal ridiculous.
A supporter, Dr. Caesar Ursic, trauma director at Alameda County Medical Center's Highland Hospital in Oakland, said his hospital treated 245 serious gunshot injuries last year. One in five patients died, and the rest were hospitalized an average of seven days, racking up an average bill of $31,000.
Perata said there are no statistics on how many cartridges are sold in California, but he estimated that $21 million could be raised annually, based on an assumption that one gun averages 50 a year. He acknowledged that's a small dent.
Several critics of the plan handed out a California Rifle and Pistol Association news release, calling for a 25-cents-per-cartridge tax credit for gun owners.
In the release, association lawyer Chuck Michel called Perata's tax plan ridiculous.
"If Boy Scouts earning a shooting merit badge should pay a tax for the actions of a gang banger shooting a liquor-store clerk, then why shouldn't law-abiding gun owners get a tax credit for the tremendous public benefit their firearms provide," he wrote.
Perata hopes to put the proposal, believed to be the first of its kind in the nation, before voters on the November ballot. That requires two-thirds approval from the Legislature.
http://www.ocregister.com/news/14bullettaxcci.shtml
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
Critics say proposed 5-cent levy would penalize the law-abiding.
April 14, 2002
The Associated Press
OAKLAND -- An Oakland lawmaker has devised a plan to offset the costs of treating gunshot wounds in the state's emergency rooms: a bullet tax.
State Sen. Don Perata, D-Oakland, announced a proposed constitutional amendment to add a 5-cent tax to every firearm cartridge sold in California.
"There is no reason why the public should bear these costs," he said during a Friday news conference at Children's Hospital in Oakland. "These are preventable injuries."
Critics called the proposal ridiculous.
A supporter, Dr. Caesar Ursic, trauma director at Alameda County Medical Center's Highland Hospital in Oakland, said his hospital treated 245 serious gunshot injuries last year. One in five patients died, and the rest were hospitalized an average of seven days, racking up an average bill of $31,000.
Perata said there are no statistics on how many cartridges are sold in California, but he estimated that $21 million could be raised annually, based on an assumption that one gun averages 50 a year. He acknowledged that's a small dent.
Several critics of the plan handed out a California Rifle and Pistol Association news release, calling for a 25-cents-per-cartridge tax credit for gun owners.
In the release, association lawyer Chuck Michel called Perata's tax plan ridiculous.
"If Boy Scouts earning a shooting merit badge should pay a tax for the actions of a gang banger shooting a liquor-store clerk, then why shouldn't law-abiding gun owners get a tax credit for the tremendous public benefit their firearms provide," he wrote.
Perata hopes to put the proposal, believed to be the first of its kind in the nation, before voters on the November ballot. That requires two-thirds approval from the Legislature.
http://www.ocregister.com/news/14bullettaxcci.shtml
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
Comments
Again, the criminal gets of scott free and we the law abiding pay the tab. We workers pay taxes to support the ones who won't work, we pay the tab for those with no insurance, we pay to feed those who yell "You (the tax payer) must support me! We; the workers support this country and fight for it's freedoms when-"they" sit around and drain all we slave for. This is an insult and a show of cowardous "out" to the real problem! If you cause the problem, we must teach- you pay for it by working and paying back in monies-your responsibility.
Theres a saying- " A man eats but is hungry again- teach him to fish and he will eat allways". Thats not the original saying- but you get my point!
IF YOU DON'T LIKE MY RIGHTS - GET OUT OF MY COUNTRY (this includes politicians)
Whats next, powder? primers? brass? Lets tax the finger that pulls the trigger! Better yet- lets tax the brain that told you to pull the trigger!
someday they will even tax cancer patients to pay for cancer research.
same logic, aint it?
barto
the hard stuff we do right away - the impossible takes a little longer
Pack slow, fall stable, pull high, hit dead center.
Margaret Thatcher
"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics."
Mark Twain