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PA- Gun owners dodge tax on ammunition
FrancF
Member Posts: 35,279 ✭✭✭
HARRISBURG -- Pennsylvania gun owners dodged a bullet when lawmakers failed to enact legislation that would have levied a 5-cent tax on each shell and required encoding ammunition with serial numbers and registering those numbers in a statewide database.
Introduced in February, the bill remains in the state House Judiciary Committee and will die at the end of the session on Sunday. But it could be reintroduced in January, and gun advocates expect to fight it again next year.
It's part of a growing effort nationally to target ammunition as one way to stem gun violence.
Similar legislation has been introduced in 18 other states and the District of Columbia, but none of those bills have become law, said Ted Novin, spokesman for the National Sports Shooting Foundation in Newtown, Conn.
"Gun-control advocates have realized that it would be nearly impossible to achieve an outright ban on firearms, whether at the state or federal level," said Novin. "Understanding this, they have recently turned to backdoor attempts at firearm prohibition -- bullet serialization, which is a de facto ban on ammunition, is a perfect example of this legislative strategy."
The "encoded ammunition" bill in Pennsylvania, according to proponents, would help law enforcement apprehend shooting suspects. The bill's sponsor, Democratic Rep. John Myers of Philadelphia, said encoding serial numbers into bullets and casings would be akin to creating "DNA for bullets." The serial numbers would be logged into a database maintained by the Pennsylvania State Police.
That would allow law enforcement to track bullets used in crimes much the way officers now use license plates to find and apprehend suspects, Myers said when he introduced the bill.
"If we begin coding bullets, we take a big step toward identifying those who misuse firearms and we do it without infringing on responsible gun owners," Myers said in a statement in April. "Ultimately, we make all Pennsylvanians safer."
He could not be reached this week for comment.
But sportsmen see it as punishing law-abiding gun owners by almost certainly driving up the cost of ammunition.
"Preposterous," Kim Stolfer of McDonald said about the legislation's purported benefits.
The production costs would make ammunition unaffordable to most people, Novin contended.
The bill applied largely to handguns but could have included certain sawed-off shotguns, said Stolfer, chairman of Firearms Owners Against Crime.
Nationally, such bills generally cover all ammunition, Novin said. But, he noted: "There are absolutely no studies to suggest it would work."
Myers introduced the bill with the backing of 19 co-sponsors, most of them Philadelphia Democrats. Two Pittsburgh Democrats -- Rep. Dan Frankel of Squirrel Hill and Rep. Jake Wheatley of the Hill District -- signed on.
Under Myers' bill, older ammunition would have to be disposed of by Jan. 1, 2010.
"It (made) the other ammunition you have illegal," said Stolfer.
But Joe Grace, executive director of CeaseFirePA, a group pushing gun control legislation, said any technology that would help lead to arrests of people who use guns while committing crimes should be seriously considered.
"We're going to take a closer look at it" next session, Grace said.
The legislation faced an uphill battle getting enough votes to win approval in the House Judiciary Committee, said Chairman Tom Caltagirone, D-Reading.
Caltagirone noted that a bill many figured would be least offensive to gun owners -- a requirement that they report lost or stolen handguns to police -- fell short of the needed votes on the House floor. But gun control advocates were buoyed by the fact that that bill was publicly debated and garnered 75 votes in a chamber where 102 votes are needed for passage.
Introduced in February, the bill remains in the state House Judiciary Committee and will die at the end of the session on Sunday. But it could be reintroduced in January, and gun advocates expect to fight it again next year.
It's part of a growing effort nationally to target ammunition as one way to stem gun violence.
Similar legislation has been introduced in 18 other states and the District of Columbia, but none of those bills have become law, said Ted Novin, spokesman for the National Sports Shooting Foundation in Newtown, Conn.
"Gun-control advocates have realized that it would be nearly impossible to achieve an outright ban on firearms, whether at the state or federal level," said Novin. "Understanding this, they have recently turned to backdoor attempts at firearm prohibition -- bullet serialization, which is a de facto ban on ammunition, is a perfect example of this legislative strategy."
The "encoded ammunition" bill in Pennsylvania, according to proponents, would help law enforcement apprehend shooting suspects. The bill's sponsor, Democratic Rep. John Myers of Philadelphia, said encoding serial numbers into bullets and casings would be akin to creating "DNA for bullets." The serial numbers would be logged into a database maintained by the Pennsylvania State Police.
That would allow law enforcement to track bullets used in crimes much the way officers now use license plates to find and apprehend suspects, Myers said when he introduced the bill.
"If we begin coding bullets, we take a big step toward identifying those who misuse firearms and we do it without infringing on responsible gun owners," Myers said in a statement in April. "Ultimately, we make all Pennsylvanians safer."
He could not be reached this week for comment.
But sportsmen see it as punishing law-abiding gun owners by almost certainly driving up the cost of ammunition.
"Preposterous," Kim Stolfer of McDonald said about the legislation's purported benefits.
The production costs would make ammunition unaffordable to most people, Novin contended.
The bill applied largely to handguns but could have included certain sawed-off shotguns, said Stolfer, chairman of Firearms Owners Against Crime.
Nationally, such bills generally cover all ammunition, Novin said. But, he noted: "There are absolutely no studies to suggest it would work."
Myers introduced the bill with the backing of 19 co-sponsors, most of them Philadelphia Democrats. Two Pittsburgh Democrats -- Rep. Dan Frankel of Squirrel Hill and Rep. Jake Wheatley of the Hill District -- signed on.
Under Myers' bill, older ammunition would have to be disposed of by Jan. 1, 2010.
"It (made) the other ammunition you have illegal," said Stolfer.
But Joe Grace, executive director of CeaseFirePA, a group pushing gun control legislation, said any technology that would help lead to arrests of people who use guns while committing crimes should be seriously considered.
"We're going to take a closer look at it" next session, Grace said.
The legislation faced an uphill battle getting enough votes to win approval in the House Judiciary Committee, said Chairman Tom Caltagirone, D-Reading.
Caltagirone noted that a bill many figured would be least offensive to gun owners -- a requirement that they report lost or stolen handguns to police -- fell short of the needed votes on the House floor. But gun control advocates were buoyed by the fact that that bill was publicly debated and garnered 75 votes in a chamber where 102 votes are needed for passage.
Comments
How would thatwork with .22's? $25 tax on a $13 brick of shells.
Think they were going after the center fire stuff.
just another example to me of politicians passing laws about things they don`t know anything about and are too power hungry to listen to people who do know and understand![:(]
they seem to miss a loop hole...you have your ammo coded..the law can trace it back to you..big deal!!..whats to stop me stealing your ammunition? what protection do i have if the factory doing the coding messes up and puts the wrong code on a batch of bullets?...as for coding the cases or the firing pins...i`ll bet revolvers will be popular with murderers...especially the old russian nagant that has the gas seal...silencers work on them remember?..and i`ll bet a lot of manafacturers would start making revolvers with gas seals so they can work with a silencer if these laws get passed!
just another example to me of politicians passing laws about things they don`t know anything about and are too power hungry to listen to people who do know and understand![:(]
+1
they seem to miss a loop hole...you have your ammo coded..the law can trace it back to you..big deal!!..whats to stop me stealing your ammunition? what protection do i have if the factory doing the coding messes up and puts the wrong code on a batch of bullets?...as for coding the cases or the firing pins...i`ll bet revolvers will be popular with murderers...especially the old russian nagant that has the gas seal...silencers work on them remember?..and i`ll bet a lot of manafacturers would start making revolvers with gas seals so they can work with a silencer if these laws get passed!
just another example to me of politicians passing laws about things they don`t know anything about and are too power hungry to listen to people who do know and understand![:(]
BINGO!
How would you encode shotgun shot and which "certain sawed-off shotguns" are they referring to?
quote:The bill applied largely to handguns but could have included certain sawed-off shotguns, said Stolfer, chairman of Firearms Owners Against Crime.
How would you encode shotgun shot and which "certain sawed-off shotguns" are they referring to?
Dang! Are they going to make my sawed-off shotgun ammunition illegal?
Like criminals can't get non-imprinted ammo which with the stolen gun business would spring up over night.
Please are these politicians stupid or do they just think we are???
Wulfmann
"Fools learn from their own mistakes. I learn from the mistakes of others"
Otto von Bismarck
But nothing scares me more than any new antigun legislation.