Washington Democrats propose 11% ammo tax for 'the privilege of using ammunition'

Democrats in Washington state are proposing an added 11% sales tax on all purchases of ammunition, for what they describe as a "privilege," which would not be applied to sales to government agencies.

The 2024 legislative session in Washington opened with an attempt to create added barriers to the purchasing of ammunition.

State Representatives My-Linh Thai and Liz Berry introduced House Bill 2238 that began with a prologue on gun violence.

"Gun violence remains a persistent health and safety threat for people across our state. In Washington, a person is killed by a firearm every 14 hours and nearly half of all suicides are from firearms," the bill's text began.

From there, the bill went on to described that the use of ammunition would be viewed as a "privilege" for the consumer.

"There is levied and collected a tax upon each retail sale of ammunition at the rate of 11 percent of the selling price," section two described.

"A use tax is levied on every person in this state for the privilege of using ammunition as a consumer at the rate of 11 percent of the selling price," the legislation added.

The bill also declared that revenue from the newly imposed tax would go to programs aimed at preventing suicide and to firearm-related domestic violence.

The law would not apply to sales made to "state, local, or tribal governments for the purposes of supplying law enforcement agencies."

Representative Berry has made "ending gun violence" one of her stated priorities.

"My bill to ban untraceable, homemade ‘ghost guns’ became law as well as other critical measures to ban high-capacity magazines, and prohibit open carry at the state Capitol, public demonstrations, local government meetings and election-related facilities," Berry wrote on her website.

Other priorities of hers included "urgent action on climate change" and "reproductive justice & LGBTQI+ rights."

Berry has also advocated for making "gun dealers and manufacturers accountable" for gun violence.

The same representative also supported legislation to prohibit the sale, manufacturing, and importing of a wide variety of semi-automatic firearms in the state, Axios reported.

Thai on the other hand did not make as extensive remarks in regard to gun legislation. Her campaign stated that she would "legislate for sensible gun laws that ensure the safety of our kids and communities."

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