Ammunition 'Sin Tax' Won't Fly Says Illinois State Rifle Association

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Feb 20, 2012, 10:01 ET

CHICAGO, Feb. 20, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The following was released today by the Illinois State Rifle Association (ISRA):

The ISRA is condemning a proposal that would levy a 2% "sin tax" on retail ammunition sales in the state. Sponsored by Rep. Kelly Cassidy (D-Chicago), HB5167 would exact the tax on law-abiding firearm owners as a means of funding a yet to be established "High Crime Trauma Center Grant Fund." Supposedly, this grant fund would provide funding to hospitals to cover the costs of treating indigents involved in violent crime.

The ISRA considers HB5167 to be a punitive infringement on the law-abiding citizen's constitutional right to keep and bear arms. Therefore, the ISRA will be working vigorously in the Illinois House to defeat this measure. The ISRA is certain that a healthy majority of legislators will find HB5167 to be totally unacceptable.

"The lawful firearm owners of this state are under no obligation to pay medical bills racked up by gang bangers, druggies, and other violent criminals," commented ISRA Executive Director Richard Pearson. "The assumption behind HB5167 is that somehow the state's hunters and sportsmen are to blame for violent crime and, therefore, should be forced to pony up and pay for others' misdeeds. Sorry, that just isn't going to fly."

"HB5167 is just another scheme concocted by the Chicago Machine to punish law-abiding firearm owners," continued Pearson. "The gun control movement has been learning a bitter lesson in the courts these past few years, so we expect to see all sorts of desperate firearm taxation and regulation bills being floated in the General Assembly this session. Lawful Illinois firearm owners may rest assured that, as fast as the gun-controllers introduce these extremist proposals, the ISRA will be on the spot to knock them down."

The ISRA is the state's leading advocate of safe, lawful and responsible firearms ownership. For more than a century, the ISRA has represented the interests of millions of law-abiding Illinois firearm owners.

http://www.isra.org

SOURCE Illinois State Rifle Association