Chicago's Brilliant Solution to Its Violence Problem: Tax It (university, taxi)

[Ace Rothstein]

Originally Posted by Vlajos

When I buy booze, I pay more tax then when I buy food.

That is a state issue. Gun tracking would need to be done on a national level and then you have to figure out what to do with the 300 million guns already out there.

[Chi-town Native]

Originally Posted by DanielWaterhouse

In Illinois you already need a FOID to buy guns and ammo and you need to travel outside of the city to get either. Transferring a gun or ammunition to someone who shouldn't have one is already illegal. Enforce it.

Hey genius, this enforcement should be happening before the guns reach Chicago.

Since clearly Indiana and suburban/rural Illinois are incapable of doing so, I laugh at the idea that Chicago should just sit around waiting on empty promises.

[Chi-town Native]

Originally Posted by DanielWaterhouse

"Do Nothing" isn't accurate. Conservatives are all for cracking down on straw purchasers and violent criminals.

... you mean, they all for it until they actually need to sit down and work out a plan to do it.

Either way, you can't stop straw purchasers on some level, everyone agrees with that. What you can do is make the guns far, far, far more impossible to steal. And you can also make them more traceable.

As for the "but, but, but - how do we pay for it?"

That is so devoid of common sense it doesn't deserve an answer, but obviously the manufacturers would need to bear the cost.

If they can in turn pass the cost along to their customers, hey, that's capitalism for you.

America - love it or leave it!

[DoubleMakers]

Originally Posted by urbanlife78

If one wants to reduce violent crime, it needs to be handled at the root to prevent it, a tax would only add revenue at the effect of violence and do nothing to prevent it. Want to solve violence in Chicago, then give those in violent neighborhoods hope and give them a way to succeed in life, that will reduce crime. A man won't succumb to violence if that man feels he has something to lose, but if he has nothing to lose, then he has nothing to stop him from being violent.

This, this, a thousand times this. This is a pure cash grab by the city to help fix their budget shortfall when they should be focusing on pension reform and as the poster above stated, stopping crime at the root. It's ludicrous some of you are defending this proposed tax. You can't legislate criminals and this is simply punishing the innocent law abiding tax payer who enjoys his 2nd ammendment rights. Why not tax criminality and leave me alone. I swear some of you would support a tax on air if Toni or Rahm said it would reduce crime.

[Army_Guy]

Okay, L.A and NYC have strict gun control. Both cities have populations larger than Chicago.

Why do they not have the same type of violence?

You cannot blame a gun, it is an inanimate object that only does what the person holding it is capable of.

I'm in a military class now, we have international students, one of them is from Singapore. I asked him if private gun ownership was allowed, he said it is not. He said they do not have gun violence but they sure have a lot of knife violence.

It's a person issue.

[urbanlife78]

Originally Posted by Chicago76

Agree with you, but what if the tax proceeds from guns/ammo were spent on programs to do exactly what you propose?

That, I am okay with.

[Vlajos]

Originally Posted by DoubleMakers

This, this, a thousand times this. This is a pure cash grab by the city to help fix their budget shortfall when they should be focusing on pension reform and as the poster above stated, stopping crime at the root. It's ludicrous some of you are defending this proposed tax. You can't legislate criminals and this is simply punishing the innocent law abiding tax payer who enjoys his 2nd ammendment rights. Why not tax criminality and leave me alone. I swear some of you would support a tax on air if Toni or Rahm said it would reduce crime.

I am "punished" almost every week when I buy booze. Taxes are much higher on booze than other items. I don't really complain about it.

[Zoness]

Ya know, reducing poverty and improving education would probably be a good first step in reducing crime. Just a thought.

[aragx6]

Originally Posted by Zoness

Ya know, reducing poverty and improving education would probably be a good first step in reducing crime. Just a thought.

Thank you for that mind-blowing suggestion.

Thoughts on how?

[Warsie]

Originally Posted by Army_Guy

I'm in a military class now, we have international students, one of them is from Singapore. I asked him if private gun ownership was allowed, he said it is not. He said they do not have gun violence but they sure have a lot of knife violence.

It's a person issue.

Ask him more stuff. I wonder what his definition of "a lot of knife violence is" given apparently draconian punishments and stuff.