“Yes, (Chicago’s proposed bullet tax) is clearly an extra financial burden for good citizens who want to pack heat, but it’s aim is to make everyone safer. Nothing else seems to be an effective deterrent — certainly not harsh sentences or fear of prison time. Killing is too easy for people these days. If morality certainly isn’t working, why not make it too pricey to pump a bunch of bullets into someone?” – Ericka Sóuter
“…why not make it too pricey to pump a bunch of bullets into someone?”
Because this tax won’t do that.
Assuming that;
1) Criminals would be affected by it.
2) If they were affected by it, that they wouldn’t just buy ammo outside the range of the tax or, I don’t know, steal it.
3) Increasing the cost of a murder by ~$.25 would stop criminals from committing them.
This will have precisely ZERO affect on crime and will serve as nothing more than an annoyance to gun owners and a virtual killing blow to ammo retailers in the range of the tax. Not to mention opening a window for future tax hikes (cigarettes). Which is, most likely, what they want anyway.
You forgot the biggest component, the actual economic cost to produce ammunition.
The materials used to make a round, and the knowledge and labor necessary, are far too cheap and plentiful to make enforcing a tax or ban feasible.
Ammunition is just too cheap to produce for any tax to prevent criminals from acquiring and using it.
If politicians honestly believe that this will help anything, we are in far worse shape than I realized.
Why doesn’t Chicago put a tax on the person getting shot? If you’re shot, you owe us 5 cents for each bullet you take.
Taxes… panacea for everything in the progressive’s fantasy world.
This is disgusting. You just *know* that some liberal gun-gabbing wanker is choking with laughter over having suggested this, and filled with glee at the thought that such a stupid idea might actually pass. Because in the minds of many of his followers, gun-owners are all equally guilty for gun crimes. This is clearly aimed at restricting our Second Amendment rights, and clearly has nothing to do with crime prevention. It’s a sickeningly stupid ploy to limit gun ownership by upstanding citizens, who spend far more on ammunition than criminals do. My god, what has this country become?
If it passes,people will just buy their ammo elsewhere.Typical evil liberal stupidity and conniving.
Here is her bio
“Ericka Sóuter is a veteran pop culture and celeb news writer. That experience boils down to two things: she knows way too much about the Kardashians and she dominates on Trivial Pursuit’s arts and entertainment questions.”
Don’t waste your bits on this clueless person.
Yeah, she provides the “clueless airhead” take on the issue.
From her own website: “I have covered everything from hero pets to … the secrets of celebrity slim-downs … My work has also appeared in Essence and Self Magazine. Now an editor at The Stir, I spend my down time hanging out with my hubby, toddler and Shih Tzu in New York City. My other favorite pastime — reality TV. I swear I’ve learned everything I need to know to survive this life from Snooki, Kim K and NeNe Leakes.”
How about an outrageous tax on high heels and makeup instead?
+1…
+10…
+1,000,000!
It’s funny you should say that. I was just wondering how many women would be insulted by a tax on make-up, heels, and sexy outfits as a deterrent to rape. That is a one to one metaphor for this bullet tax – as equally infuriating and as equally ineffective.
Not content with just missing the point, she is hurtling her carcass at near luminal speeds in the opposite direction. This is one of the most oblivious quotes I have ever read.
I think a 1st Amendment tax would be better. Anytime someone says something stupid, they get taxed $1. Sure would bring in lots more money than a bullet tax.
+1000
Didn’t the British try that with us a while ago?
Well get your check book out, cause guess who gets to make that call. Not you.
Ericka looks kinda cute, even if an airhead.
What about Toni Preckwinkle, the “brains” behind this proposal? Any redeeming qualities there? Or just a “poopyhead”?
+1
Also, how about a tax on stupid ideas?
Anyone else having trouble with the “Reply” feature? That was supposed to be a reply to Mark’s comment. Plus the reply boxes are acting wonky for me.
Yeah, if you take more than five minutes to write, it doesn’t post until sometime later when you get a “Your Comment has been approved…” message. Also, for me, anyway the “Notify me of follow-up comments via e-mail. has stopped working and the Subscribe feature stopped working a couple of days ago.
Hitting new depths of airheadedness in 3, 2, 1.
How is a tax on ammo supposed to deter killings? Is a criminal who is hellbent on killing someone going to think “I was gonna kill him when bullets are $1 each but now that it’s $2, nevermind.”
Chris Rock did it first.
Ya, but most people understand that Chris Rock is a comedian and was telling a joke, and in the same routine he also warned against adult activities in the Champaign Room.
And that was to prevent innocent bystanders. “Damn, he must’a done somthin’. He got $50,000 worth of bullets in his ass!”
…………………. For liberals, taxes fix Everything.
Yeah, I can totally see the upper management of the Vice Lords gang canceling their turf war with the Latin Kings because of a bullet tax. Absurd.
This law has nothing to do with crime. Some members of the same Chicago City Council proposing this ordinance have gangs campaigning for them ! As far as the liberal management of Chicago is concerned there IS NO SUCH THING as a law abiding gun owner.
It’s not a city tax, but a Cook County tax. Cook County is absolutely huge.
Chicago should pass a politician tax. Under my proposal, every politician that gets bought off will have to pay a percentage of his or her bribe money to the state. This will cut down on government corruption and relieve the overcrowding in Illinois’ prisons. It will also assure future Illinois governors that their post-electoral careers will not involve making license plates stamped “Land of Lincoln.”
This tax can only ever really affect the law-abiding Citizens. Criminals will ignore it for ammo sales as a cost of business, if they even buy their ammo legally, and the tax is not even applicable to their illegal gun sales. This woman’s statements are so far beyond idiotic they are off the scale. She cannot have any sense of shame because she’s too big of a moron to see how stupid she is.
Knucklehead said that a bullet tax would be a burden for good citizens who want to pack heat. This is Chicago, no? There is no legal provision for packing a firearm in Illinois. Which is to say, everything hasn’t been tried yet.
Typical for control freaks, she doesn’t even know what laws we already have.
So lets distract people from chicago’s real problems with a non solution like this.
I have so just given up even trying to understand these people. Seriously, it helps no one. There is no magic fix, other than get tough on crime. It is a crime issue.
About the author
“A former staff writer at People Magazine and Us Weekly, I have covered everything from hero pets to hurricanes to the secrets of celebrity slim-downs (which is basically avoiding carbs and anything else that you might actually enjoy eating). My work has also appeared in Essence and Self Magazine. Now an editor at The Stir, I spend my down time hanging out with my hubby, toddler and Shih Tzu in New York City. My other favorite pastime — reality TV. I swear I’ve learned everything I need to know to survive this life from Snooki, Kim K and NeNe Leakes.”
thestir.cafemom.com
—- Just the type of low-quality thinker not to quote at TTAG.
How about the family members of a violent criminal are all forced to pay a $10,000 fine? That’ll be a much more realistic deterrent in more than one way. Your siblings, parents, (and if they’re old enough) children will try to keep you from committing a violent crime because they don’t want to lose $10,000 for your stupidity and if a violent criminal cares about their kids, they won’t want them to have a $10,000 debt they start having to repay as soon as they turn 18 just because someone “disrespected” daddy.
Tot, that system will only work if you give family members the legal right and protection to do whatever is needed to keep their family member from committing criminal acts.
Sort of biblical really. Take an unruly or troublesome child to the city gates and stone them to death.
I thought the Biblew said something about not visiting the sins of the father on the son…..
“Take an unruly or troublesome child to the city gates and stone them to death”
— I haven’t come across that teaching. Where in the Bible is it at?
The book of Mohammed, maybe?
Ezekiel 18:20:
” The soul who sins is the one who will die. The son will not share the guilt of the father, nor will the father share the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous man will be credited to him, and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against him.”
Just trying to re-inforce the point that you can’t hold family members accountable for the actions of others in their family unless you give them the tools to make the criminal minded get in line.
Holding me accountable for a 10 graqnd fine because of the actions of a sibling is unjust for many reasons, not the least of which is if I forcibly try to stop a sibling from their criminal ways I may wind up in front of a judge.
@JWM
Punishing completely innocent people doesn’t work, so we might as well punish the family members (who may or may not have been involved in the commission of the crime and certainly had an effect on if the person grows up to be a criminal or not) – it’s a hell of a lot more just than picking random people who have no connection to the perp and punishing them.
Crime is primarily a cultural problem. Lets not kid ourselves about who’s running around Chicago committing these crimes – it’s the families living in the ghetto, and it’s rarely just one person in the family committing crimes.
“clearly an extra financial burden for good citizens”
Fvcking wonderful, maybe when this fails liberals might consider punishing the bad citizens (i.e. criminals)
Perkwinkle, the Cook County President, is trying to find more sources of revenue for the cash strapped county while at the same time sticking it to the “evil” gun owners. It won’t work, people will just go out to the collar counties to buy their ammo. Just like now you see gas stations just outside the county advertise cigarettes with no Cook County taxes.
Everyone knows the cost will be passed on. Expect your crack to cost more. Maybe the more economical “dance off” will decide gang disputes when the spray and pray shoot outs become just too damn expensive.
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