The Bitch Girls (specifically Bitter) point to a story about a new strategy to get an ammo tax passed in California. Here's a post I did on the first ammo tax bill & its economic repercussions for shooters.
From The Union Democrat:
"BEWARE, HUNTERS and target shooters. Assemblyman Mark Ridley-Thomas (D-Los Angeles) is back with another bill to infringe upon the rights of legal gun owners.
You may recall that last year he had AB 992, which proposed a 10-cent tax per bullet on the sale of ammunition in California. This was soundly defeated. His new bill (AB 2858) would exempt people with a valid hunting license, but the fees would still apply to law-abiding target shooters who do not hunt.
The new bill would impose a 10 percent fee on all ammunition and a 5 percent fee on all handguns sold in California, in order to establish a 'Firearm Victims Reimbursement Fund."
The idea is to divide the gun owners into hunters & target shooters. They think that if they convince the hunters to go along that they'll have enough support to get it passed. I have no doubt that the Fuddite crowd will be all for it so it's important to attempt to explain to them that after this law is passed they'll be the next target. Appeasement just won't work, & throwing other gun owners in the fire won't generate support for the day when the hunters are under attack. After all, if hunters sold you down the river because the measure of the day didn't directly affect them would you be willing to help them out when their bacon was in the frying pan?
Much gratitude to Bitter for posting about this. If you're in California you should keep your eye on this & try to explain to hunters why they should oppose the bill even thought they're exempt (for now).
Posted by Publicola at June 10, 2004 04:00 PM