“NO CONSEQUENCES FOR THE CRIMINAL”
February 15, 2020
[Editor’s Note: The author, a retired Connecticut state trooper, sent the following letter to his state senator and representative in response to a bill proposal for an “excise tax” on ammunition.]
Just heard the latest tax insanity tax proposal for the State Legislature. The local news reported this morning that a bill is being introduced to place a 35% excise tax on the purchase of ammunition, coupled with the State Sales Tax that would bring the cost to about 42%. This supposedly to be used for gun violence. Of course this tax only applies to legal gun owners who do not commit crime.
I was in law enforcement as a State Trooper for twenty two years and went into R.I. for another eighteen years as a civilian working in their crime lab, retired from there and was brought back to the Connecticut Forensic Lab as a civilian for several more years. I have completed forty five years connected to law enforcement and from reviewing criminal cases being reported in the Journal Inquirer, it is dismaying to law enforcement to see how many illegal possession of firearms cases see the gun charges dropped. That along with the number of people with extensive arrest records for illegal firearm possession over and over with no jail time. Tell me how you plan to curb gun violence with a tax when there are no consequences for the criminal.
I have been a legal permit holder all my life and shoot at ranges at least once a week.
Now as you are on a tax crusade, I have a great excise tax you should jump on right away. As you are about to launch Legal Pot in the State of Connecticut I would put a 50% excise tax on that bill before it’s passed. You are going to need millions of dollars down the road for mental health and drug addiction problems. If you do not believe me, read the reports from other States that have allowed it.
Robert A. Hathaway
Vernon, Ct. (Retired State Trooper)
Having served as a Connecticut state trooper for 22½ years, Robert A. Hathaway was a Firearms & Tool Mark Examiner for the Rhode Island State Crime Laboratory for 18 years, retiring in 2010. From 2010 to 2013, he served as Principal Trainer, Firearms Section at the Connecticut State Forensic Science Laboratory. He has trained and lectured on firearms identification and testified over 260 times in state and federal courts, including during the trial of James Earl Ray in the shooting death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.