Gun Tax Update, 2017

As you probably know, a few years ago Seattle introduced a tax on ammunition and firearms sales, in the amount of $25 per gun and $0.02 per round for ammunition for calibers 22 and lower, and $0.05 per round for all the rest.

They promised a windfall of $300k-$500k as a result of this tax, ostensibly targeted for "gun violence" research and prevention programs.

As we argued before, the projections were fake through and through - and raised all kinds of questions about the professional integrity of City Finance Director Glen Lee and his department.

The 2017 numbers are now in - and publically available thanks to a FOIA request by Reddit user u/buckyboo22.

So now we know that Seattle's tax revenue grossed just over $93k in 2017. However, they lost sales tax from a bunch of gun stores - such as ourselves - which moved out of the city because it became financially infeasible to se;ll guns with this tax.

What was the net profit?

Well, we don't know how much of the revenue city lost at other gun stores, but we have transferred $63715.36 in taxes to Lynnwood in 2017. If we did not have to move, this money would have gone to City of Seattle.

This means that the net "profit" from Seattle Gun Tax was definitely less than $30000 - and this does not include the sales tax revenue loss from other gun sales - only from Precise Shooter. That is one tenth of what Seattle "leadership" promised to the citizenry.

Now, we all know that the money was not the object here - what Seattle City Council pursued in reality was fewer gun sales to city residents. Did they accomplish at least this?

Nope.

In 2015, the last year we operated in Seattle, we sold 1171 guns to people residing in Seattle ZIP codes. In 2016 we were forced to Lynnwood, where we operated only since March - yet we still sold 1098 guns to Seattle residents. 2017 was not a great year for gun sales overall, yet we still sold 1286 guns to Seattle residents.

Did I mention that Seattle Gun Tax was a failure?