Detroit City Council Adopts Ammo Tax, Mental Background Check for Bullet Purchases

The Detroit City Council unanimously passed a “Bullet Bill” ordinance that creates an ammunition tax and requires a mental background check for bullet purchases.

The “Bullet Bill” was push by Wayne County Commissioner Reggie Davis (D), adopted and sponsored by City Council member Andre Spivey.

On September 18, 2018, Breitbart News reported that Davis’s push included a tax on ammo, mental background checks for ammo purchases, and a requirement that all purchases are handled by police.

The version of the bill that Spivey pushed did not include the requirement that sales go through police, but the taxes and mental background checks were included.

Fox 2 reports that the monies taken via the ammo tax are designed to “assist victims of gun violence and educational programs with a focus on conflict resolution, administrative costs.”

Davis celebrated the passage of the bill by quickly stating his intent to get a similar law at the state level and thereafter secure a tax on ammo at the federal level. Neither Davis nor Spivey addressed the fact that taxes on ammo raise the price of bullets, thereby making self-defense cost prohibitive for poorer city residents who may live in dangerous areas where they need a gun at ready at all times.

Davis and Spivey also failed to point out that criminals to do go to retail gun stores to buy their ammo, therefore the taxes and mental checks will never impact them.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News, the host of the Breitbart podcast Bullets with AWR Hawkins, and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.