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Huckleberries Online

Chicago: bullet tax

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle speaks at a news conference in January. (Associated Press)
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle speaks at a news conference in January. (Associated Press)

CHICAGO – As Chicago struggles to quell gang violence that has contributed to a jump in homicides, a top elected official wants to tax the sale of every bullet and firearm.

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle speaks at a news conference in January.

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle submitted a proposed budget on Thursday that would impose a tax of a nickel for each bullet and $25 for each firearm sold in the nation’s second-largest county, which encompasses Chicago.

Preckwinkle’s office estimates the tax would generate about $1 million a year, money that would be used for various county services including medical care for gunshot victims...

...Dave Workman, of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Bear Arms, said the tax proposal is sure to infuriate gun rights advocates when they hear about it.

“It’s not the law-abiding citizens stacking bodies like cordwood in Chicago; it’s the bad guys,” he said.

Preckwinkle sought to fend off that argument during her remarks Thursday. She said nearly a third of the guns recovered by police after being used in Chicago crimes had been purchased legally, initially at least, in suburban Cook County.  Read more.

Will taxing bullets and firearms will be an effective deterrent to gun crimes?



Huckleberries Online

D.F. Oliveria started Huckleberries Online on Feb. 16, 2004. Oliveria's Sunday print Huckleberries is a past winner of the national Herb Caen Memorial Column contest.