MAINE LEGISLATURE CONSIDERS GUN, AMMO TAX IN WAKE OF COURTHOUSE SHOOTINGS

March 15, 2005--High profile shootings always have predictable results: grieving families, relentless media attention, and grandstanding politicians.

Maine state Representative Deborah Pelletier-Simpson (D-Auburn) has stepped up to fill the role of the latter.

Rep. Pelletier-Simpson has sponsored a bill which would impose a 7% tax on guns and ammunition, to provide funding for courthouse security across the state.

Recent shootings at courthouses in Georgia and Illinois prompted Rep. Simpson to take the iniative.

"I've been in the Legislature for five years, and I've listened to two different chief justices say this is a problem," she told the Portland Press. "For five years we've done nothing, and we've been very lucky. I feel like we've been living on borrowed time."

While state court officials acknowledge that they already have the screening equipment necessary to prevent people from smuggling knives or guns into courtrooms, they say they lack funding for the personnel to staff the equipment.

Supporters of the bill estimate the 7% gun and ammunition tax would raise roughly $50,000 a year.

Acknowledging that $50,000 would not be enough to pay for staffing, Cathie Whittenburg, executive director of Maine Citizens Against Handgun Violence, said, "But it would be a good start."

If a 7% tax is a "good start," the question then becomes what taxation rate is a reasonable end goal for Ms. Whittenburg. Twenty percent? Fifty percent?

Rep. Pelletier-Simpson says a gun tax makes sense. "The fear in the courts is firearms, so if it's firearms, let's tax that," she said.

Thus, Pelletier-Simpson's bill might well create the nation's first "fear tax."

Apparently lost on Rep. Pelletier-Simpson is that fact that--until guns grow arms, legs and brains--it is criminals who are using weapons in courtrooms.

Perhaps Ms. Pelletier-Simpson might reconsider her bill and instead impose a tax on criminals.

Or grandstanding politicians.