Chicago's Cook County OKs gun tax to defray costs of violence [View all]

[glacierbay]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/03/us-usa-guns-chicago-tax-idUSBRE8A201O20121103

By Mary Wisniewski

CHICAGO | Fri Nov 2, 2012 9:06pm EDT

CHICAGO (Reuters) - The county that includes Chicago approved a tax on firearms on Friday to help pay healthcare costs from gun violence, making it what is believed to be the first major U.S. metropolitan area to enact such a levy as a form of gun control.

The Cook County Board of Commissioners voted 9-7 to impose a $25 tax on each firearm sold. The tax is expected to raise $600,000 in revenue in 2013.

With the vote, the nation's third most populous county, with nearly 5.2 million residents, becomes the first large U.S. jurisdiction to approve such a measure, the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence said.

"We want to highlight this issue of gun violence and we also want to add to our resources to address it," Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle told reporters on Friday

So instead of addressing the real issue, Cook County decides to punish law abiding gun owners who have nothing to do with those shootings.