The National Rifle Association, along with other gun rights groups, on Monday sued the city of Seattle over a new “gun violence tax” on those who sell firearms and ammunition in the city.
The city approved the tax earlier in August, and the ordinance will go into effect in January 2016, according to MyNorthwest.com. Seattle will direct revenue from the tax toward “prevention programs and research intended to reduce the burden of gun violence on Seattle residents and neighborhoods.”
The NRA filed a complaint in King County Superior Court arguing that the tax violates a Washington state law that prohibits local governments from enacting their own firearm regulations, according to CBS News.
“Once again, anti-gun activists in Seattle have chosen to violate the Washington State Constitution and trample upon the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens,” Chris Cox, executive director of the NRA¹s legislative arm, said in a Monday statement. “They tried to enact similar regulations back in 2009 and lost. It’s a shame to see such a waste of public resources on issues the courts have already ruled to be a clear violation of state law.”
Lawrence Keane, the president of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a gun group that joined the lawsuit with the NRA, described the Seattle tax as “nothing but a ‘poll tax’ on the Second Amendment and an effort to drive Seattle’s firearms retailers out of business.” The Second Amendment Foundation also joined the lawsuit against the city.
Seattle lost a 2009 lawsuit brought by the NRA after the city passed a measure prohibiting firearms in parks.
