City considers fee for guns, ammunition

[SecularMotion]

Leaders in St. Petersburg, Florida are considering adding a fee to guns and ammunition purchases in an effort to curb growing violence in the city.

Councilman Karl Nurse said the fee would be nominal and would go towards gun violence prevention efforts.

"It would not be enough money to prevent people from buying guns, and that is not the goal," Nurse told TampaBay.com. "It's not people legally buying guns that are the issue. The issue is, 'how do we reduce the flow of illegal guns to felons, children, mentally ill, and how do we pay for efforts to deal with the results of gun violence?"

Florida law prohibits cities from imposing local taxes on firearms but Nurse said he's meeting with the city's attorney to discuss options related to a fee. Other options could include using the revenue generated by the fee to fund the purchase of gun locks or buyback programs.

http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2016/01/city_considers_fee_for_guns_am.html