The Associated Press reports that National Rifle Association, the National Shooting Sports Foundation, (the trade association of gun makers) and the Second Amendment Foundation sued the city of Seattle on Monday over its adoption of a so-called “gun violence tax,” a tax on firearms and ammunition designed to help offset the financial toll of gun violence.
Surgeon general: I have no regrets about calling gun violence public health issue
The nation’s chief doctor said he doesn’t regret saying gun violence is a public health issue, reports Associated Press. Vivek Murthy called his difficult confirmation process a consequence of speaking out. He was confirmed in December in the face of opposition from the National Rifle Association, in a rare defeat for the powerful gun lobby.
Seattle passes laws to tax guns and ammo, require report of stolen firearms
The New York Daily News reports that the Seattle City Council unanimously approved two laws designed to curb gun violence and raise hundreds of thousands of dollars each year for the city. The “gun violence tax” requires gun dealers to pay $25 for every firearm sold and 5 cents for every round of ammunition. The revenue will go toward prevention programs and research “intended to reduce the burden of gun violence” in crime-riddled neighborhoods. “Taxpayers in Seattle pay for millions of dollars in emergency medical care every year for people who have been shot,” City Council President Tim Burgess said. “It’s time for the gun industry to chip in to help defray these costs.”
A Common-Sense Public Health Approach to Gun Violence
Every year, wrote Tim Burgess, the Seattle City Council president, in Capitol Hill Times, taxpayers in Seattle pay for millions of dollars of emergency medical care for people who have been shot. It’s time for the gun industry to chip in to help defray these costs. The City Council will soon consider two gun-safety measures to address these issues in our continuing effort to reduce gun violence in Seattle.
Interactive Map Documents Rising Tide of State Preemption
Since the 1980s, preemption has been used to undermine grassroots movements across public health issues including tobacco, nutrition, housing and gun violence. But over the last few years, opponents of public health have dramatically accelerated the use of preemption to hinder public health. From e-cigarettes to paid sick days, more and more communities are threatened with losing their ability to protect their own residents. This not only affects the community health and safety, but it can kill effective grassroots movements before they even start.
Continue reading Interactive Map Documents Rising Tide of State Preemption
Move Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to FBI?
Following an investigation of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, or ATF, the Center for American Progress released a report that outlines the challenges that the bureau faces in combating gun crime and regulating the gun industry. The report concludes that to improve federal enforcement of gun laws and industry regulation, ATF should be merged into the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
How New Jersey’s Smart Gun Law Backfired
Bloomberg News reports that a law intended to encourage safer, digitally enhanced firearms has actually impeded their development. Gun store owner Andy Raymond gained passing fame last year for posting an Internet video about his abortive attempt to sell so-called smart guns, a type of digitally equipped firearms designed to thwart unauthorized users. As punishment for offering smart guns, some of his detractors threatened to kill him and burn down his store in Rockville, Md.
Are gun silencers a threat to safety?
A bill under consideration in Illinois would make gun silencers legal, reports ABC’s Eyewitness News. “The suppressor makes a firearm a safer gun,” said Josh Waldron, CEO of SilencerCo.
“It protects your hearing and makes the person firing the firearm, more comfortable and less likely to flinch when he pulls the trigger.” Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart disagrees. “Frequently the telephone calls that come in to law enforcement about problems that occur on streets come from neighbors who have heard gunshots out there. If there was none of that, it would decrease the ability for law enforcement to get to a location and quickly find out what happened.”
Gun deaths in New Mexico
About 34 percent of New Mexicans say they have guns at home, lower than in other states where the number can be closer to 50 percent. However, New Mexico is one of the states with the least amount of gun regulation – and a high firearm-related fatality rate. A report from KUNM in New Mexico finds that a large majority of gun deaths in New Mexico are from suicide, which account for nearly 75 percent of gun deaths in New Mexico.
Judge Suspends City Gun Laws
A Dauphin County (Pennsylvania) judge has ordered Harrisburg to stop enforcing three of its gun-control ordinances, reports The Burg, a community magazine in Harrisburg. Judge Andrew H. Dowling found that the three ordinances—prohibiting gun possession in a park, by a minor and in a mayor-declared state of emergency—violate the state’s Uniform Firearms Act, which forbids municipalities from regulating the “lawful ownership, possession, transfer or transportation” of guns and ammunition for purposes that are not considered illegal under state law.
Corporations and Health Watch 