Taxing The Second Amendment

Since Chicago and Cook County were told their restrictions on firearm ownership were unconstitutional, they have decided to tax weapons and ammunition instead. Long-time readers of this site will recall I predicted such actions back on July 26, 2012.

Cook County claims the increased taxes on firearms and ammunition are in order to help close their $115M budget deficit, which is used, in part, to pay for law enforcement, running the county hospital, and operating the county jail.

Their reasoning is that most of  the problems these facilities address deal with firearms ownership, that taxing firearms and ammunition is a logical solution. However, they fail to understand that most of the violent crimes are conducted using weapons that were stolen or procured on the black market (usually also stolen). Those weapons would not be subject to the tax, since they would not be bought through legal channels.

All this proposal does is further infringe upon law-abiding citizens' second amendment rights to keep and bear arms. While it does not directly restrict firearms ownership, it makes owning one or purchasing ammunition more expensive, therefore less available due to household budget constraints.

Toni Preckwinkle, the Cook County Board President, is pushing for this so-called "violence tax". Perhaps she needs a few lessons in the US Constitution. Residents of Illinois may wish to let her know their thoughts on this violation of their rights. 

Making arms and ammunition less attainable through economic means is really just another form of violating the second amendment rights of the citizens. Illinois already infringes upon the second amendment to a drastically unconstitutional level with laws restricting the ability to bear arms. Illinois does not allow carry permits, concealed of unconcealed. To transport a weapon, it must be unloaded and locked in a container, with the ammunition locked in a separate container, rendering it useless for self-defense purposes. Those very laws are infringements upon the right to carry (bear) that is constitutionally guaranteed.

This tax is but another level of infringement meant to keep residents of Cook County, IL and those Americans traveling through the area from exercising their constitutional rights. There is a word in the dictionary for such forms of  despotism:  TYRANNY!