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Old January 4, 2019, 06:03 PM   #1
jmtbiggin
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More money

No it's not the end of the world, but just another added expense to get a gun.

https://www.wbtw.com/news/state-regi...ina/1686698312
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Old January 4, 2019, 07:10 PM   #2
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I buy used guns off armslist. I do hope this fails though.
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Old January 4, 2019, 07:21 PM   #3
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It's a proposed 7% tax on guns in South Carolina to fund school resource officers.

The school resource officers could be handy for many, many reasons. I don't see why gun buyers should take the hit on this. Maybe some hit, but not the whole cost.

I believe there is ALREADY a tax on guns and ammo for natural resources too.

I am in favor of the schools having some sort of security personnel be it police or armed staff that are on the premises. I really like the idea of the school giving over a room with an outside entrance as a police substation.
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Old January 4, 2019, 08:19 PM   #4
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I don't see why gun buyers should take the hit on this.
Because they're convinced YOU are the deranged ticking time bomb waiting to shoot up the school.
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Old January 4, 2019, 08:26 PM   #5
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Police substation on school...sounds reasonable. I like the idea of SRO myself, but agree on spreading the burden.
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Old January 5, 2019, 08:12 AM   #6
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My grandkids smallish elementary school(about 250 students) is such a soft target..and altho in a historically safe neighborhood, I wish they had a least one armed RSO on campus..When they are both fulltime(5 year old, 1/2 day)..maybe I'll pitch myself as one..
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Old January 5, 2019, 12:10 PM   #7
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Once again, they go after the tool, the weapon, rather than the root causes of gun violence. Yes, cars pay for roads through gas taxes etc, but in my opinion, equating that with gun owners paying for security that protects EVERYBODY, not just gun owners, is simply apples and oranges.
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Old January 5, 2019, 05:52 PM   #8
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but in my opinion, equating that with gun owners paying for security that protects EVERYBODY, not just gun owners, is simply apples and oranges.
I don't disagree with the principle, but in reality we ALL pay for things we don't personally get the benefit of. Do you live somewhere they have a School Tax on property? You have to pay that, even if you don't have kids. I live where I have to pay for irrigation water that I don't get!

It's the way our system works. Everyone pays, SOME people benefit, some don't.

There is a specific tax on firearms, ammo, archery equipment and even your fishing gear. 11% excise tax, figured in at the manufacturer's level. Pittman-Roberts act, (if I remember right) dates from the 1920s. The money goes to conservation work, NOT the general fund.

Many states hunting and fishing license fees do not go to the general fund, they are specifically for conservation (fish & game) funding. Only a few pay, but all benefit.
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Old January 5, 2019, 07:54 PM   #9
TruthTellers
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Originally Posted by DaleA View Post
It's a proposed 7% tax on guns in South Carolina to fund school resource officers.

The school resource officers could be handy for many, many reasons. I don't see why gun buyers should take the hit on this. Maybe some hit, but not the whole cost.
That's my issue with it as well. This is a tax that only affects people who own or will own guns, not people that won't own guns who are the ones screaming for fees, taxes, laws to curtail 2A.

The entire community is who should pay for SRO's, not people who buy guns. Raise the state sales tax half a percent, then everyone is paying for it and that would probably raise more than 22 mil annually.
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Old January 6, 2019, 12:17 AM   #10
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Eh I’m torn. I would be ok with it if my state did it. For the guns I buy, it would equate to maybe, MAYBE, 40 bucks a year. I understand the argument saying everyone should foot the bill and not just gun owners... but let’s be honest many gun purchases are luxury purchases. It does suck for the first time gun owner getting a home defense pistol, but we are talking an extra 20 bucks on a 300 dollar purchase. For folks who buy several thousands of dollars worth of new firearms a year? They can swing it.

I still understand the issues raised. And I am sympathetic.
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Old January 6, 2019, 12:33 AM   #11
Nathan
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If you want to pay more taxes, go to your local school sponsored gambling. People pay 100’s a week to play bingo and pull tabs. Whole thing goes to the school as it is run by volunteers.

If you want SRO’s, vote!

This is a basic use tax. Somebody has determined that legal gun sales have direct relationship to school shootings, so they need a use tax, like gas taxes....the thing is legal gun sales are completely unrelated to this. Maybe this tax would be better applied to illegal drug sales or the video games, alcohol & cigs the parent who raise these little monsters consume! As you can see, I’m making a bit of a funny, but not much.
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Old January 6, 2019, 12:35 AM   #12
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smallish elementary school
You know why they are safe? Fewer hormones and harder to get them to say what you want in the aftermath when you stick a camera in their face...
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Old January 6, 2019, 07:45 AM   #13
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Originally Posted by M88 View Post
Once again, they go after the tool, the weapon, rather than the root causes of gun violence. Yes, cars pay for roads through gas taxes etc, but in my opinion, equating that with gun owners paying for security that protects EVERYBODY, not just gun owners, is simply apples and oranges.
And that would be?? (devil's advocate..for discussion)...
Quote:
You know why they are safe? Fewer hormones and harder to get them to say what you want in the aftermath when you stick a camera in their face..
For right above..hormones and camera's?? Not sure about that after getting shot at or having a friend killed..in a school...
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Old January 6, 2019, 12:12 PM   #14
M88
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Originally Posted by USNRet93
And that would be?? (devil's advocate..for discussion)...
Referring to my post stating that "...they go after the tool, the weapon, rather than the root causes of gun violence." The root causes of gun violence? Not that I pretend to know a ton about this subject, but just my life experience so far. In my opinion there are many. Not the least of which is the change in the culture and the mindset of the public we now live in and participate in. THAT discussion is complicated and would take pages to discuss. Quick example... I'm 65... when I was in high school in the late 60's we regularly took our guns to school during hunting season. Only rule was they had to be unloaded and kept in our locked locker. What has changed in 50 years? My hunting rifle hasn't!
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Old January 6, 2019, 02:11 PM   #15
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"...they go after the tool, the weapon, rather than the root causes of gun violence."
First, let me point out that the term "gun violence" is an anti-gun catch-phrase, and using it automatically gives a degree of legitimacy to their point of view. Guns don't do violence, PEOPLE do violence with guns, and other things.

And simply put, People ARE the root cause. Period.

Why isn't it "bullet violence"???
After all, its not the gun that kills or wounds, it's the BULLETS!!!
of course, that sound byte sounds even stupider then "gun violence"...

In the book of Genesis, Cain murdered Abel with a rock. Whether you believe this is actual history or a religious parable (or both, or neither) doesn't matter, what matters is that afterwards, God did not mark the rock as the murderer, he marked Cain.

Blaming guns is the easy way out. It is the LAZY way out. Inanimate objects don't fight for their rights, only some of the owners do, and they (the anti gun bigots) don't consider the voices of "a basket of deplorables", " clinging to their guns and their religion" as something worth listening to.
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Old January 7, 2019, 08:49 AM   #16
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Not the least of which is the change in the culture and the mindset of the public we now live in and participate in.
Of course, I don't have any idea either other than there still seems to be people who shouldn't own a gun, easily getting one. 'Most' who become criminals by shooting somebody were 'law abiding' just before that. Hindsight is easy, of course...Does seem to be a very divisive society these days, where you get angry, many pull out a gun. PLUS most suicides are still via a gun...
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Old January 7, 2019, 10:21 AM   #17
peterg7
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More money

Yep they should tax psychotropic drugs and those who dispense them.


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Old January 7, 2019, 11:28 AM   #18
M88
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 44 AMP
First, let me point out that the term "gun violence" is an anti-gun catch-phrase, and using it automatically gives a degree of legitimacy to their point of view. Guns don't do violence, PEOPLE do violence with guns, and other things.
One of the great things about this forum I truly enjoy since I joined about a year ago is being educated on so many things. This is an example. Makes perfect sense when read, but did I think along those lines before? No! I'm 65, and the older I get the more I realize how much I DON'T know :-) When discussing guns with people from now on I will bring up this point. Point appreciated.

Quote:
Originally Posted by USNRet93
...there still seems to be people who shouldn't own a gun, easily getting one. 'Most' who become criminals by shooting somebody were 'law abiding' just before that.
As discussed many times on this forum, therein lies the "catch" if you will. Who has a crystal ball, and more important, WHO behind what desk decides whether he or she is allowed to have a gun. Notwithstanding our 2d, which basically says everybody does.

Back to the original OP's point, after reading points in this and other threads, I've softened my stance, and lean at least a "little" more towards the IDEA of taxing a gun to pay for school resource officers. However I still think it should be a tax that EVERYONE pays, not just people who buy guns.
I also believe that in gun UN-friendly states, such a tax, by the way it is implemented, will be used to infringe on our 2d disproportionately more and differently than initially intended. It would be the "give them an inch and they take a mile and you'll never get that back" kind of deal.
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Old January 7, 2019, 01:29 PM   #19
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You might consider asking those politicians WHY they are ONLY taxing guns?

Why aren't they putting the tax on golf clubs, tennis racquets, sneakers, boats, cars, coffee, jet skis, or any of the OTHER things people buy and use in their lives??

Or, alternately, not tax items, but usage?? Why not put a tax on the cost of every round of golf played in the state?? (for one example). A tax on that, unlike a tax on the purchase of an item, is continuous.

OR, add the tax to everyone's phone bill? Or property tax? OR add it to the gas tax, or other existing tax?
Doing that would make better economic sense, from the point of view of increasing state revenue.

The problem politicians have with doing that is that it doesn't make good political sense. Raising taxes and/or adding new ones makes people unhappy. Make enough people unhappy, and the politician is out of a job.

Tax a MINORITY group (gun buyers), one that is not identified, defined, and protected by law, and you upset fewer people.

And, then there is the issue that, IF such a tax fails to provide the desired level of money, where does the state get the money to make up the difference?? Suppose they pass it, and spend the money on School Resource Officers (cops), then due to various reasons, people don't buy as many guns in a year as they used to, and the tax money goes down. What then? Raise the tax RATE on the guns we do buy?? Tax something else??

OR, do you think the politicians are going to tell the public that "we have to lay off some of our cops, because people didn't buy enough guns to pay for them!" I'd love to see a politician try that level of honesty!
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Old January 7, 2019, 02:03 PM   #20
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Politicians placed very high use taxes on cigarettes to combat our dirty filthy habit and then limited the places we could smoke. Now many smokers have finally quit and the politicians lost all that revenue. So now they want to legalize smoking dope so they can reduce the burden on our jails yet increase again revenue! Say What! I don't get it, smoking is smoking no matter what.

Now our local High School has a Sherriff's Deputy on site. It also has a restricted access entrance. During school hours all doors are locked with the exception of the main entrance. Visitors must be buzzed in.
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Old January 7, 2019, 02:17 PM   #21
M88
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 44 AMP
OR, do you think the politicians are going to tell the public that "we have to lay off some of our cops, because people didn't buy enough guns to pay for them!" I'd love to see a politician try that level of honesty!
Now THAT would be an interesting "squirm". I agree of course, that a politicians FIRST priority is to stay in office, and thus they will prey on the lowest denominator that would upset the least number or people (voters), and appeal to the masses that know little if anything about guns. Unfortunately these days, that is often the gun owners since the majority of folks I meet simply don't have a clue. If they do have an opinion it's shaped by the misinformation from the anti-gun anti 2d politicians and especially the media that the public is fed almost daily. I have to say, I'm not a pessimist, I generally look at the glass half full, but on this subject I'm pretty discouraged.
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