This week, California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) signed a law that puts an 11% tax on guns and ammo into effect. He called the gun regulation a “sin tax.”
Breitbart News revealed that California Assemblyman Jesse Gabriel (D) was advocating for a law to put an 11% excise tax on the sales of guns and ammo in the state.
He said that the bill would bring in almost $160 million a year for the state government. The Sacramento Bee reported that former Democratic Assemblyman Marc Levine (D) expressed support for Gabriel’s excise tax due to California’s “$31.5 billion budget gap.”
The new tax was signed into law by Newsom this week. He then held a question-and-answer session to talk about his thoughts on it.
A reporter told Newsom that he had been against tax hikes in the past and asked him why he was in favor of this one.
“This is a little different for me,” Newsom said. “It’s a revenue tax that has to do with gun safety. It pays for assistance in mental health and school safety…In that light, I see this kind of differently. This isn’t a general income tax or a business tax. From my point of view, it’s more like a sin tax, where there’s a justification for it.”
Someone else asked Newsom what he thought about the people who said he should use money from the general fund to fight gun crime instead of making a new tax.
“I respectfully disagree,” Newsom said, “and my signature shows that I disagree.”
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