HB 1277 - Sales and Use Tax - Ammunition - Developmental Disabilities Funding - 50%

[MJD438]

Where can I find a link to that? I don't feel like searching.

 

[Clovis]

Sure. Someone else will do the search for you.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firearm_Owners_Protection_Act

Thanks, I had that coming. I'll try a search next time and not bother everyone.

 

[teratos]

Thanks, I had that coming. I'll try a search next time and not bother everyone.

No problem. It is important we educate people as well as we can. It's an important piece of gun control history.

 

[Clovis]

Just read the link, didn't realize (remember?) the machine gun ban of '86 was called the Hughes amendment. I think that ban is one that should not be hard to overturn (in a perfect world). Gives us something to work toward...someday.

 

[Dreamquencher]

One more attack on gun owners. Hearing is tomorrow Friday at 1:00. Please come if you can to testify against this. Also please use the AGC legislative email system to let our legislators know you do not support this bill.

HB 1277 - Sales and Use Tax - Ammunition - Developmental Disabilities Funding - 50% Tax on Ammunition

Here is a (somewhat long) letter I drafted Re: HB 1277. As the father of three boys with diagnoses, including autism, I take special offense to the false linkage of mental health care with ammunition sales, as I state below. Constructive criticism is welcomed.

Does anyone have any stats regarding how many Marylanders live within 30 minutes of another state by car? I just took a SWAG.

Also, can anyone confirm the fiscal year used by the State of Maryland? Is it 1 Oct-30 Sep, 1 Nov-31 Oct, or something else? Google let me down.

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Dear Delegate ( ),

I mean no disrespect to the sponsors of House Bill 1277 (HB 1277), Delegate Cardin, et al., but this bill is insane, disrespectful toward people with developmental disabilities, and destructive of small business in Maryland. The Maryland House of Delegates needs to kill this wrongheaded new tax bill, and all others like it, in the interest of fairness and common sense.

HB 1277 is insane because it states: “THE SALES AND USE TAX RATE FOR AMMUNITION IS 50% OF THE TAXABLE PRICE”. Thus, instead of charging the current price of approximately $20.00 for a box of 20 bullets of 5.56 mm ammunition, Maryland firearms dealers and other purveyors of ammo would be forced to charge their customers $30.00 for 20 bullets. Imagine the uproar if Maryland hiked the sales tax on milk, eggs, gasoline, or other consumer products by 50% overnight. Insanity would ensue. Note: this bill does not limit its tax burden to common calibers of ammunition which are used in regulated firearms, such as the incorrectly labeled "assault weapons". Instead, every single cartridge and shotgun shell on the market would be affected, including those commonly used by hunters and other sportsmen, from 22LR to #6 bird shot and beyond.

What does the funding of mental health care have to do with ammunition? Answer: nothing at all. As the father of three children with psychiatric diagnoses, including one with severe autism, I strongly oppose the false linkage of mental health funding with this egregious tax on law abiding gun owners. This blatant attempt to sway the emotions of lawmakers (who wants to be seen as opposing funding for mentally handicapped people?) is disrespectful toward people with special needs, and those such as me who love and care for them on a daily basis. If funding for mental health care needs to increase, which I don't dispute, it should come from the Maryland General Fund, not this unfair and outrageous tax on citizens who are simply exercising their constitutionally-protected right to keep and bear arms. ALL taxpayers, not just gun owners, are responsible to help pay for the care of poor people with mental health needs. To follow Del. Cardin's logic, we might as well slap a special 50% tax on all fast food to pay for the medical care of Marylanders who suffer from heart problems and obesity as a result of their choice to eat cheeseburgers on a daily basis. Fair is fair. However, it is profoundly UNFAIR to link the care of the mentally ill with the mere purchase of legal ammunition by lawful people.

Furthermore, this bill will not raise one net cent for the Maryland coffers, but will instead destroy the small businesses of Maryland firearms dealers, who currently derive a significant amount of their income from the sales of ammunition. In case our legislators have not noticed, Maryland is a small state. I would guess that 80% of Marylanders live less than thirty minutes from the border of another state that has far more reasonable firearm and ammunition laws. If HB 1277 passes into law, 100% of Maryland firearms owners will either buy their ammo online at sites which will not charge the 50% markup for business reasons, or simply get in their vehicles and take their business out of the state of Maryland. This bill would end up costing the state MILLIONS of dollars in lost revenue, not only from the loss of ammo sales, but from the loss of tax revenue when FFL (Federal Firearms Licensed) dealers go out of business or move to a neighboring state with more rational public policy.

Finally, in an underhanded, stealth move, HB 1277 is set to take effect earlier than almost every other bill passed by our legislature: “SECTION 2. AND BE IT FURTHER ENACTED, That this Act shall take effect July 1, 2013.” In Maryland, laws usually take effect on 1 October of the year they are passed. Why the rush to enact this tragic new tax? Is it to add (fictitious and questionable) tax revenue to the books before the end of the fiscal year (1 October)? Or is it intended to catch firearms owners off guard, thus depriving them of the ability to maintain adequate stocks of ammunition for practice, training, sporting use, and self-defense?

In the interest of fairness and common sense, and to protect the rights of law-abiding gun owners, and taxpaying firearms dealers and other merchants, HB 1277 needs to be killed, before it harms individual Marylanders and Maryland businesses a thousand times more than any purported benefit of this insane bill.

Sincerely,

Dreamquencher, M.D.
Ex-LtCol, USAF, MC, etc.

 

[KSFrostie]

Did they actually get thought and signed into law?

 

[teratos]

Did they actually get thought and signed into law?

No.

 

[KSFrostie]

thank you!

 

[kraftyone]

Good thing I live 5 minutes from delaware screw you maryland