Tacoma took a little step toward gun sanity Tuesday night. Let’s hope others follow
They did it.
After months of heated discussion and a surprise last-minute delay, the Tacoma City Council passed its contentious guns and ammunition tax Tuesday night.
It means that on July 1, 2020, the city will begin collecting $25 per firearm sold at retail, and a few cents per round of ammunition, depending on the caliber.
It also means that Tacoma has placed itself in the white-hot center of the nation’s gun debate, like it or not.
As far as policy goes, the small tax is a small, small step. It will bring in an estimated $30,000 a year, with the money going to gun violence prevention efforts, possibly including a gun buy-back program.
As far as statements go, however, the tax is potentially a bigger deal.
Tacoma City Council member Ryan Mello, the tax’s prime sponsor, told The News Tribune last month that he hopes Tacoma’s efforts will inspire other cities to consider similar measures.
On Tuesday night, Councilmember Catherine Ushka echoed those sentiments, explaining to a packed council chambers that passing the tax is akin to playing “the long game.”
Ushka said she’s hopeful it will provide “a signal to other municipalities that it’s something that they can do” as well.
For any of that to happen, the work of Tacoma’s elected officials is far from over.
How will the money be spent, specifically? What will be considered a success?
Those questions, and others, remain to be fully answered, and it’s up to the same elected officials who put their necks on the line Tuesday night to make sure the program was worth the effort. Because rest assured, the tax will continue to be debated and assessed, and vocal critics will surely pounce at any sign that it’s faltering.
With this in mind, let’s stop for a moment and talk about how Tacoma’s new guns and ammo tax should be judged and also take a minute to acknowledge what it’s up against.
First, to call a vote of the City Council courageous would be hyperbolic, but there’s little question it took guts — or at least thick skin — to turn the proposed tax into law.
After my last column on the subject, I saw the pent-up vitriol that’s stirred by the mere suggestion that guns take a societal toll. Want your own, personalized version of Jimmy Kimmel’s “Mean Tweets”? Try arguing that it’s far from outlandish or oppressive to ask law-abiding gun owners to pay a tax that helps mitigate that toll.
That’s likely nothing compared to the grief Tacoma City Council members received. Particularly Mello, who late last month confided in me that “this is the first time I’ve ever worked on something where I actually, sincerely fear for my safety as a result.”
That’s scary stuff, but also, sadly, far from shocking. When it comes to debating guns and even common-sense reforms, the bare-knuckle rules of engagement have long been established. The fight over even the most minor gun-violence related proposal is a bloody brawl, and nearly anything goes.
Things get even more complicated when the organized gun lobby gets involved, as was the case in Tacoma. The power and influence it wields is one big reason why, nationally, despite polls showing Americans largely support reforms like mandatory background checks and licensing, we never see any progress
It’s also why cities like Tacoma, with no other options, are left to grasp at fraying strings as they struggle to find ways to deal with the very local impacts of gun violence. With limited jurisdiction, they can make well-meaning proclamations and enact small measures like this one, but that’s about it.
So when it comes time to evaluate Tacoma’s new guns and ammo tax, let’s be clear from the get-go:
It will not solve gun violence in the city. It can’t, in large part because the same forces that tried so hard to defeat it have turned the federal gun debate — where real progress could actually be made — into a well-funded and well-organized quagmire where real results are virtually impossible.
It will not serve as a panacea for all the societal and cultural ills that contribute to gun violence in America. It can’t, because those ills run too deep and also require federal and state-level reforms.
Sadly, it can’t promise to prevent the next mass shooting, or the next drive-by, or the next act of senseless violence
But what the tax can do is provide a small source of funding that Tacoma can now use to take a few guns off the street, or develop a smart program, or — potentially — save even a single life one day.
That’s it.
That’s all the Tacoma City Council did Tuesday night, or at least the path it started down in earnest.
Want something bigger and better? Want something that will really make a difference?
Gosh, me, too.
Call your representative in Congress.
Then tell the gun lobby to get lost.
