This Seattle gun store won’t sell you guns or ammo, at least for the next couple of months. (Photo: Precise Shooter/Facebook)
In protest of a recent gun control law passed in Seattle, Wash. a local gun shop has halted the sale of guns and ammunition. Their next step will be to pack up and leave.
Sergey Solyanik, the owner of Precise Shooter, warned the city that he would move his shop out of town if the law went into effect and is now making good on his promise. He plans to move his shop just outside of Seattle to Lynnwood, part of the greater metropolitan area, just out of reach of the new tax law. The new location is expected to open in mid-February.
Seattle’s gun tax law raises the price of all firearms by $25 and the cost of ammunition by 2 to 5 cents per round. Solyanik argued against the proposal, saying that the tax was too high and would impair his ability to compete.
“It would make us unprofitable,” said Solyanik to the Seattle Times. “I calculated it by retroactively applying the tax to our existing sales—I’m a software developer, so I can do that—and we would be operating at a loss for the entire store.”
The tax was proposed last summer by Seattle City Council president Tim Burgess and signed into law in August of 2015. The law went into effect on Jan. 1. Revenue from the new tax is to be used to pay for research on ways to prevent gun violence.
“People who shoot up people in the streets—they don’t come here to get guns. They get them on the streets,” Solyanik said. “It’s just collective punishment for all of us.”
“We are all disappointed,” said Solyanik. “We feel that, basically, a crockpot politician was trying to buttress his ‘progressive’ credentials and we got run over.” By halting sales, Solyanik is denying the city any revenue from the gun tax from his shop, as well as sales taxes after he leaves.
“Burgess doesn’t expect any money from this. In fact, there will be a net loss for this city. This location brings in roughly $50,000 in sales tax revenue, so that is all going to be gone next year.”
Seattle estimates that the tax will raise up to $500,000 annually.
Although the city council passed the law unanimously, it’s already being challenged jointly by the National Rifle Association, the National Shooting Sports Foundation, and the Second Amendment Foundation.
“Once again, anti-gun activists in Seattle have chosen to violate the Washington State Constitution and trample upon the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens,” said Chris Cox, executive director of NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action. “They tried to enact similar regulations back in 2009 and lost. It’s a shame to see such a waste of public resources on issues the courts have already ruled to be a clear violation of state law.”
“We’ve been down this path before with Seattle when we sued them and won, knocking out their attempt to ban guns in city park facilities,” said the SAF’s Alan Gottlieb. “They city does not seem to understand that no matter how they wrap this package, it’s still a gun control law and it violates Washington’s long-standing preemption statute.”
The Washington state constitution explicitly forbids municipalities from passing any gun regulations that are stricter than state law without authorization from the state legislature.
I’m sure having the gun store close and move out of Seattle is exactly what the radical, left-wing city council wanted. They would love to drive all of the gun stores out of town. If I was the owner, I’d move my business just outside the Seattle city limits and hold a huge, widely advertised grand opening sale.
The way around taxation in Seattle is not to shop there. Basically boycott all businesses. The world does not revolve around Seattle, although the city has added taxes to pay for just about everything to pay for sports stadiums. Vote with your wallet!
There’s a reason that it IS called the left coast.
Hey! If I remember correctly, California, Oregon and Washington voted to put the asshole back in office. Many people tried to tell you liberals what was going to happen under dictator ovomit’s administration, but, you wouldn’t listen. Try to remember that when you cast your vote in November. Hillary would probably be even worse.
This is why I live in the south! This liberal crap doesn’t happen here! The people wouldn’t stand for it.
What gun sales and support businesses should do is refuse to sell arms and ammunition to such cities as passes laws like this. Add to that many other businesses with ties to the shooting community and that might get their attention.
I can’t believe any sitting government authority would pass a law such as this on it’s good businesses and citizens whom already pay enough tax revenue in as it is. I am so glad I live in a state (Utah) which promotes and respects our US CONSTITUTION and our way of life of self defense. I would never move to or visit Seatle just because of the fear of too much government control. Citizens of Seatle, I implore you to raise up and elect people who care about your rights and freedoms. I’m a retired Police Chief and have two honorable discharges and this just makes me sick to know the Seatle Council did this to it’s good law abiding citizens. SEMPER FI Seatle citizens, hang in there and God be with each and everyone of you!
Its pretty rough for gun owners out here. Ridiculous….Its the primary reason I moved to the neighboring county out in the Actual County to escape insane Liberals in the city.
This was never about tax revenue, it is about restricting gun ownership. It is another bite of the cookie to shut down any commerce in firearms. Next will go the places to shoot because of toxic lead, or safety and noise concerns. It is all about stopping ownership of firearms. Price them out of business, tax them, sue them or outlaw them, that is the goal. Moving the business is not a victory, it is capitulation to Liberalism.
Hey we all know Seattle sucks, so the City wins because they enacted this tax to force these types of businesses out. Well they suceeded, Lynwood will benefit thiugh so bravo to them, the business owner and the customers who will get what they want. Screw Seattle proper.
This is a great store to shop at I look forward to them reopening, the additional sales tax on firearms and ammunition is pure politics, a “sin tax” on all gun owners and sportsman who shop in Seattle. I will not support the current Seattle tax agenda on firearms and ammunition sales! I will not shop in Seattle for anything until this is resolved.
Actually a good plan. All retailers in Seattle should halt the sales of guns and ammo, and relocate out of city limits. Take those gun / sales tax revenues to the outlying areas and see how Seattle deals with the loss of $500K+(Estimate based on the above mentioned tax revenue from ONE store and extrapolating for the higher number of stores engaged in firearm / ammunition sales) instead of the increase like the politicians promised. It will be funny when they have to lay off law enforcement personnel due to revenue loss. The politicians will have a little explaining to do, won’t they?
We all need to do the same thing as this store owner, stop making these law makers money. Here in Cook County Illinois they charge an extra $25 fee per firearm on top of there already high taxes, I literally go 5 min down the street and buy my guns and ammo there. No fees and lower taxes Thank You Gat Guns.
This sucks for Seattle, but all of my favorite firearms dealers in the Puget Sound region have their businesses in the Tacoma/Olympia area, out of reach of this BS tax. Seattle is the new California, thanks to human migration.
Perhaps the best way to get back at the Seattle progressives (politically-correct name for communists) is to boycott ALL Seattle businesses until this bullshit stops. The pressure exerted on the city by business owners should take care of the problem in short order.
Example: In the early1960s I belonged to an AMA motorcycle club of over 600 motorcycle members and approximately 900 associate members. We would park five motorcycles at one parking meter in town and the police started citing the four farthest from the parking meter. We complained twice to the city over a six month period and they told us both times that the parking spaces were for one vehicle only. Stores were open late on Fridays, shopping night, so we started parking one motorcycle in each space as soon as it became vacant virtually shutting down all the parking downtown for automobiles. The women club members would feed the parking meters as they expired. Of course after the first night the citizens and business owners were angry at us. On the second Friday we passed out an printed explanation on why we were doing this which got a few business owners and citizens to see our point of view. After the second Friday the newspaper reporters did a story on it and many more saw it our way and started complaining to the police department. Here’s how it went from there:
3rd Friday – The police agreed to allow us to park two motorcycles in each space. We turned it down and demanded five in each space.
4th Friday – The police agreed to allow us to park three motorcycles in each space. We turned that down and we reduced our demand to four in each space AND a refund of the past fines for 6 months. They declined the offer.
5th Friday – By this time the citizens and business owners were VERY angry with the mayor, police commissioner and the city council for not accepting our offers. The police commissioner contacted us and agreed to our demands of four motorcycles per space and a refund of all the fines paid in the past three months, not the six months we asked for, if we had receipts. We agreed but demanded that they give us an additional $250 to offset some of the money we had fed the parking meters. The commissioner said he would have to get the OK from the city council for the $250 which he got the following day which was on a Thursday. This ended the battle which should have been settled in our first meeting with the city.
An unexpected thing happened a few months later. The city was experiencing many electrical power blackouts and the police commissioner contacted our club for assistance in traffic control at the traffic light-controlled intersections. We accepted and volunteered many hours many times during the course of about four years. It’s amazing how citizen pressure can get results when the cause is right.
Maybe they will allow planned parenthood to move into the closed gun store and kill babies. They will most likely subsidies a business like that.
No taxes for the city so I know Seattle’s “estimate of gain” is bogus. They also may lose local employee which loses a home and population. It goes downhill from there.
My congrats to the shop owner Sergey. This man sticks to his guns (Pun). Really a man of his word.
How many people know a “gun store” sells a myriad of items from clothing to outdoor??? A real loss for Seattle.
My family in Seattle will frequent the new store “just because” this man is forthright and upright.. a REAL American.
Seattle’s loss is Lynnwood’s gain…
The voters of Seattle must want this law because they keep voting in these anti gun politicians.. You usually get what you ask for, and America may get a King someday, or at least an all powerful Pope presiding over a one world govt…
Most young Liberal / Communists don’t care about our guns they vote for these assholes so they can get more pot without getting busted.
As a 50 yr. resident of WA, I laud the communist city council (registered Socialist on the council says a lot about Seattle).
This tax will ensure that everyone surrounding Seattle city limits will have a gun store without libertaxes. The irony is that these Gruber “stupid” liberals will not collect one cent of tax as there will be no gun stores in Seattle so all of their lying, corrupt politics will yield nothing. Moreover, our state constitution prohibits any city/county govt. from promulgating any firearms laws that further restrict 2nd Amendment rights and Seattle has already lost other comparable attempts to restrict firearms possession twice before the state supreme court. This ordinance will also be found unconstitutional – not because they don’t have authority to create taxes but because the Gruber “stupid” drones proposed the new tax as a means to “control” guns and promote gun safety – and therein lies the fatal flaw – they proposed it as a gun control means which is clearly in violation of our state constitution. If it is not found so by our communists in Olympia then we can take comfort that Seattle will not collect one penny in new taxes without any gun stores. Just another example of utterly ignorant, brainless, stupid, coprolite-eating liberal policies that are all show and no go.
I do hope the communist voters of Seattle awaken to the deceptions this city council has consistently resorted to a new tax to solve their cretinesque management. What they should be doing is cleaning up the thousands of rats scurrying around the streets and restaurants at night, eject the homeless drug addicts and prostitutes that are on every street corner, and clean up the Afro-American gun problem on Rainier Avenue South (our Harlem) and the “southend” where all the shootings occur (yup 90% of the shootings are involving blacks males, ethnic gangs, and criminals – all of which are the result of liberal policies of appeasement and coddling of these wretched souls.
May I suggest that you SANE citizens of the Socialist Repubic of Seattle do as much of your shopping & other retail spending outside the city limits as you can. For instance, if you decide to go to a particular restaurant chain, pick one of the sites just outside the city limits, even if it means having to drive a little farther. The same thing goes for buying gas for your car, grocery shopping, etc. If all the SANE members of the populace do this, you will soon put a crimp in the city’s revenue. That seems to be the only way for you to let the stupid city government know that you will not tolerate their leftist BS.
The problem lies within the fact that our politicians are spending taxpayer’s money when they deceive our laws, local, state, or federal, and that needs to stop. If these idiots want to continue to manipulate the laws then we should be able to literally sue the politicians as individuals, on their dime.
God Bless the USA and Springfield Armory!
I agree fully “representatives” should be liable, and to be sued or jailed for these kinds of assaults on our right’s
They are doing just want Seattle wants, shutting sown the store.
You will hear Seattle whine like Obama in the coming years when crime rates climb blaming the outlying areas (Or neighboring states) for Seattle criminals ability to buy guns and bring them into the city. Obama says 40% of the guns used in Chicago come from Indiana’s less restrictive gun laws. Remember, any time you hear a politician use statistics “Figures lie and liars figure”. Obama, the spin master, has a staff of statisticians that manipulate the narrative to support his position. And then he will deliver the narrative with a twinkle in his eye, the only thing he can do eloquently, and the uninformed progressive liberals fall in line like the lemmings. We all just need to ensure Clinton doesn’t follow him up or it will be a constant Constitutional battle.
Well, if that law was passed in my town (luckily I live in a rural area, but let’s assume the COUNTY passed the law…) I’d just buy guns and ammo somewhere else, like the next town/county over. $25 isn’t much for the convenience of buying a gun just down the road, I guess… you would waste more in gas and time to go too far out of your way just to spite the government. But 2-3 cents a round on ammo? Just go out of town and buy a good supply while you’re there, or mail order it. I have a few soviet bloc and WWII era surplus guns with “odd” calibers that gun stores don’t carry much of (9×18, 7.62x54R, 7.62×25, 7.5 Swiss), and if they do there’s not much selection — I can find 9×18 FMJ, but not JHP, which I use in my carry guns (CZ-82 or P-64). Yeah, I just like the surplus military guns…
I also collect C&R firearms and your list pretty much matches mine, but with the exception of 7.62x54r (Walmart) there are no outlets in my area that carry 9×18 or Swiss 7.5×55 and I rely on distributors on the internet for these caliber’s and truthfully for just about all standard ammo.
There are some very good deals from on line distributors and even with shipping costs the price per round is often cheaper than buying from a retail store.
I know some states do not allow shipment of ammo to an individual but for those that do there are some good deals to be had.
“$25 isn’t much for the convenience of buying a gun just down the road, I guess…”
It’s this kind of thinking that encourages the unconstitutional action by gun grabbing, liberal politicians. They figure, that exactly that kind of thinking will not discourage a purchaser from going ahead an paying into their illicit coffer. Next they’ll figure, well let’s up the tax to $30, then $40 dollars. This whole exercise is like throwing the frog into the water and then turning on the heat. By the time he realizes he’s being cooked it’s too late to jump out. Give these people not one inch and I applaud the store owner for packing up and moving out of the city. His moving expense is going to be far less than operating a money losing business to satisfy a bunch of lefty’s on the Seattle city council.
Let’s forget about the 2nd Amendment for a moment and look at a more serious problem: Tax. Every darn time a town, city, county, state, or the federal government wants to do something, rather than doing the work to find funding by cutting out some waste, they simply apply a new tax. My state for example, Maine, is famous for hiking tobacco and gas tax whenever they want to fund some project or good deed. When they don’t want people to get up in arms about yet another new tax, they simply call it a “fee”. Very often these “taxes” or “fees” only affect certain groups of people so it’s more like a punishment.
Taxes were one of the main reasons we had a revolution in 1776. Somehow though, we have been conditioned to allow and blindly accept our governments enacting new or raising current taxes and or fees constantly. We then scratch our heads at some point wondering why a dollar doesn’t buy as much as it used to.
The city shoots itself in the foot. All puns intended. Now they have NO taxes from this business. The property owner loses income as well. These well intention minded, but brainless, civic leaders do not understand what they are doing. Their purpose is to attract business to the city, not drive it away. Others will follow, and the streets will be no safer.
I don’t think these left wing libtards give a hoot about the potential tax income from a gun store. They accomplished exactly what they wanted.
It seems to me that the law had the desired effect, which was to rid the city of gun stores. San Francisco did the same: after trying unsuccessfully for years to regulate the only gun store in the city into oblivion, it imposed an ammo tax and registration reporting requirement that was the final straw. City Hall rejoiced. An adjoining suburb denied a gun store a permit when it was forced out of one location in town (loss of lease) and tried to move to another in the same town, causing the business to close. Chicago had been trying to do the same through zoning laws until slapped down by the federal court. And all of these idiots think that by limiting the locations where guns can be purchased, they are striking a blow against “gun violence.” The essence of this approach is the “common sense” belief that fewer guns will mean less “gun violence.” Umm, riiight.
Not only do these idiots create, “Victim zones,” with their no carry cities, but they then create, “No business zones,” when law abiding gun store owners move out, crime moves in, law abiding folks move away where they can protect themselves, now you have, “Crime zone,” cesspools. Don’t worry, it’s for your own good. It’s the new world order.