Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle wants to tax the sale of every bullet and firearm - an effort even she acknowledges could spark a legal challenge.
The budget proposal Thursday that calls for a tax of a nickel for each bullet and $25 for each firearm sold in the county. Preckwinkle's office estimates the tax will generate about $1 million a year, money that would be used for various county services including medical care for gunshot victims. Law enforcement officials would not have to pay the tax, but the office said it would apply to 40 federally licensed gun dealers in the county.
Preckwinkle insists the ordinance is far more about addressing gun violence than raising money for a county that faces a deficit of more than $100 million next year.
Richard Pearson, the executive director of the Illinois State Rifle Association, says the tax wouldn't do anything to address gang violence but would harm local businesses and law-abiding citizens.
"If she wants to get to the people causing all the problems she ought to put a tax on street gangs," he said. "All this is going to do is drive business out of Cook County, into other counties, Indiana and Wisconsin."
One suburban gun shop owner agreed, saying that his customers, many of whom are hunters and police officers, will simply go elsewhere.
Through last week, the city reported 409 homicides this year compared to 324 during the same period in 2011. Although the violence still doesn't approach the nearly 900 homicides a year Chicago averaged in the 1990s, officials say gang violence was largely to blame for a rash of shootings earlier this year.
SOURCE: AP Edited by TYO
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