Maine: Gun tax proposed in court safety plan

bangordailynews.com ^ | 3-4-05

[SheLion]

BANGOR - A gun and ammunition tax that would create a fund to increase security at the state's courthouses has been proposed by several members of the Legislature's Judiciary Committee. The 7 percent tax would be in addition to the 5 percent state sales tax that consumers already pay when they buy guns and ammunition from licensed dealers in the state.

George Smith, executive director of the Sportsman's Alliance of Maine, said on Monday that while the organization supports improved security at courthouses, it would oppose the bill.

"Making law abiding citizens who are gun owners pay the entire cost of something that serves all the people is the wrong approach," he said. "I can't see any justification in this particular funding source. Why not knives and other items?"

The bill, LD 1012, which was printed late last week, has been referred to the Taxation Committee. A date for a public hearing has not been set.

The bill's sponsor, Rep. Deborah L. Pelletier-Simpson, D-Auburn, said on Monday that she is very concerned about court safety and believes the bill will help focus attention on the need for full-time screening in the state's busiest courthouses.

"We need to do something before we have a person shot in our courts," she said. "We are not protecting our judges or our citizens who go there."

Pelletier-Simpson said that she chose to tax firearms rather than other potential weapons such as knives, because as a victim of domestic violence she believes guns are deadlier.

"I am more concerned about court security than creating a new tax," she said on Monday. "If people want to come up with another way to pay for it, I'm open to other ideas, but we have to make our courts safe."

The bill, if passed, would create the Courthouse Security Fund that would be used to pay security officers to operate screening equipment similar to that used at airports and in federal buildings.

Exactly how much money a gun and ammunition tax would raise has not been determined, but earlier this year, Ted Glessner, state court administrator, said that it would cost $3 million to use the equipment properly year round.

Glessner also has said that about 85 more court security officers are needed to operate the X-ray machines and metal detectors.

The judiciary would not take a stand on the bill, he said on Monday.

For almost a year, the 28 metal detectors and 10 X-ray machines have sat idle in courthouses around the state because there has been no money to pay security officers to operate them. The equipment was purchased in 2003 with $540,000 in bond issue money.

Legislators last year approved $100,000 for random screenings in locations around the state that now are under way.

In her State of the Judiciary Address to the Legislature last month, Leigh I. Saufley, chief justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, however, again expressed concern about "the inability of the judicial branch to make our courthouses safe."

Entry screening is conducted an average of 10 days each year for each of the state's 41 courthouses, she said.

The chief justice also told the Legislature that during that limited time screeners had confiscated more than 1,400 knives or related weapons and five firearms.

"Imagine what has come through those doors during the more than 200 days when entry screening was not in place," she said last month.

 

[SheLion]

Singling out another group that chooses to purchase  another legal commodity.  Guns. 

They must have gone through the gun registrations and with their calculators, figured out how much more in tax money they could get by taxing hunters and gun owners.

Maine is well known for hunting.  Now this group is going to be on the 'hit list' next to carry the state budget.  I don't care what Augusta is saying these taxes will be used for.  It's easy to say what it will be used for, but once the tax is in place, the lawmakers will come up with other ways to spend this money and you can count on it.

I hope now that this will help wake up the people in Maine as to why smokers are so irate.  Maine smokers also suffer taxation without representation and someone who is the head of the rifle association in Maine better put a stop to this.

On the other hand, maybe you hunters can go ahead and pay the tax so they will leave the smokers alone!

 

[SheLion]

Ping for the Tax Comments. Can liquor in Maine be far behind???? Get ready!

[Muleteam1]

God I thank thee for giving my ancestors the wisdom to make a left turn when they got off the boat.

Muleteam1

[IGOTMINE]

We already pay an 10% federal excise tax on firearms and ammunition that is supposed to go for wildlife areas and shooting ranges across the country.

[SheLion]

We already pay an 10% federal excise tax on firearms and ammunition that is supposed to go for wildlife areas and shooting ranges across the country.

Just a little tid bit they 'forgot to add,' right? Well, get ready to bend over!

[Puppage]

The bill's sponsor, Rep. Deborah L. Pelletier-Simpson, D-Auburn

Now , HOW did I know that letter would be at the end of the sponsors name?

[Shortwave]

My heart weighs so heavy trying to make it in Maine. I grew up here, made my life here, and chose to raise my children here. It has become a playground for the Massholes, the liberal scumbags, red diaper doper babies, and all their ilk. If anyone in this country wants to see what results when liberalism is left unchallenged, try opening a business in Maine.

I wish I had the President's optimism in that our best years are before us but I don't. We are losing jobs by the hundreds each month because of failed financial policies and the over taxation and red tape of business.

I've had many friends move away to the southern states to take work and leave Maine. I'm so saddened and at times it depresses the hell out of me. I'm a middle class Christian caught in a social experiment confined to the borders of this once proud state. Welfare, immigration, gay advocacy, environmentalist, anti-guns, war, Bush no-shaving lesbian NAGs, and it goes on and on.

Sorry about the rant. I sometimes think I should make a Public Service Announcement like the one in the 70's with the Indian standing on the highway, looking at the trash, turning to the camera with a tear in his eye. Just replace him with a white, straight, flannel shirted, male with a blaze orange hat and hunting rifle in hand and stand him on I-95 at the Kittery toll both as a Subaru goes by with a "rainbow" sticker in the rear window.

[VeniVidiVici]

"Imagine what has come through those doors during the more than 200 days when entry screening was not in place," she said last month.

Wow! Imagine what has come through those doors and nothing happened!

I think even the concept of stupidity is lost on the Democrats.

[ARCADIA]

The best thing about Maine is that we always have the option to make it part of Canada.

[School of Rational Thought]

They should tax something more relevant such as convict income.

Or increase court costs.

Increase annual attorney license fees

Fine the union for each incidence a weapon gets through and actually causes harm.

[SheLion]

When they are too gutless to cut spending, stick it to the gun owner's and tell them the safety taxes are for their own good. Heh!

[CSM]

"The 7 percent tax would be in addition to the 5 percent state sales......."

Is the 7% compounded on the 5% or additional to it. In other words, is the total tax 12% or 12.35%? I thought double taxation was illegal. Oh, yeah, I forgot about tobacco taxation policies that are applauded by so many freedom loving freepers.

[8mmMauser]

Awwww, noooo.... They will probably tax even more our ammo even if it uses "smokeless powder" We will have to get our black powder through the internet, maybe Yesshoot.cs or something.

[metesky]

1.) Why do they need anyone to run the metal detectors? Shouldn't they just respond with a loud screeching alarm?

2.) I hadn't realized Maine had such an epidemic of violence at its court houses. They don't? Never mind...

[8mmMauser]

Awwww, noooo.... They will probably tax even more our ammo even if it uses "smokeless powder" We will have to get our black powder through the internet, maybe Yesshoot.cs or something.

[8mmMauser]

oops! trigger happy today

[SheLion]

My heart weighs so heavy trying to make it in Maine. I grew up here, made my life here, and chose to raise my children here. It has become a playground for the Massholes, the liberal scumbags, red diaper doper babies, and all their ilk. If anyone in this country wants to see what results when liberalism is left unchallenged, try opening a business in Maine.

We moved to Aroostook in August of 1983 for Loring Air Force Base.  We all know what a big fight Snowe and Collins did under the Klintoon Administration!  They fought so hard to save it, it closed.  Some hard fight THEY put up, right?  Wrong!

I wish I had the President's optimism in that our best years are before us but I don't. We are losing jobs by the hundreds each month because of failed financial policies and the over taxation and red tape of business.

And don't forget the thousands of Somali's Baldacci and Rep Tom Allen brought into Lewiston in 2002.  They alone are sucking our welfare system dry.  Maybe all the gays Balacci is trying to attract to our state will bring in a bunch of revenue like he is saying? heh!

I've had many friends move away to the southern states to take work and leave Maine. I'm so saddened and at times it depresses the hell out of me. I'm a middle class Christian caught in a social experiment confined to the borders of this once proud state. Welfare, immigration, gay advocacy, environmentalist, anti-guns, war, Bush no-shaving lesbian NAGs, and it goes on and on.

I truly feel your pain as I am sure any Mainer reading this does as well.

Sorry about the rant. I sometimes think I should make a Public Service Announcement like the one in the 70's with the Indian standing on the highway, looking at the trash, turning to the camera with a tear in his eye. Just replace him with a white, straight, flannel shirted, male with a blaze orange hat and hunting rifle in hand and stand him on I-95 at the Kittery toll both as a Subaru goes by with a "rainbow" sticker in the rear window.

It's a pitiful state we live in.  No one outside of Maine has NO clue to our plight here.

 

My heart weighs so heavy trying to make it in Maine. I grew up here, made my life here, and chose to raise my children here. It has become a playground for the Massholes, the liberal scumbags, red diaper doper babies, and all their ilk. If anyone in this country wants to see what results when liberalism is left unchallenged, try opening a business in Maine.

We moved to Aroostook in August of 1983 for Loring Air Force Base.  We all know what a big fight Snowe and Collins did under the Klintoon Administration!  They fought so hard to save it, it closed.  Some hard fight THEY put up, right?  Wrong!

I wish I had the President's optimism in that our best years are before us but I don't. We are losing jobs by the hundreds each month because of failed financial policies and the over taxation and red tape of business.

And don't forget the thousands of Somali's Baldacci and Rep Tom Allen brought into Lewiston in 2002.  They alone are sucking our welfare system dry.  Maybe all the gays Balacci is trying to attract to our state will bring in a bunch of revenue like he is saying? heh!

I've had many friends move away to the southern states to take work and leave Maine. I'm so saddened and at times it depresses the hell out of me. I'm a middle class Christian caught in a social experiment confined to the borders of this once proud state. Welfare, immigration, gay advocacy, environmentalist, anti-guns, war, Bush no-shaving lesbian NAGs, and it goes on and on.

I truly feel your pain as I am sure any Mainer reading this does as well.

Sorry about the rant. I sometimes think I should make a Public Service Announcement like the one in the 70's with the Indian standing on the highway, looking at the trash, turning to the camera with a tear in his eye. Just replace him with a white, straight, flannel shirted, male with a blaze orange hat and hunting rifle in hand and stand him on I-95 at the Kittery toll both as a Subaru goes by with a "rainbow" sticker in the rear window.

It's a pitiful state we live in.  No one outside of Maine has NO clue to our plight here.

 

[Fido969]

Rep. Deborah L. Pelletier-Simpson is one of the most loony of the loony left in Maine.

We fought for years to get a Fatherhood Commission established in Maine to look at, among other things, the problems facing divorced dads. We were viscously opposed by the radical fems in the Maine legislature, who comprise a small group of about 10 or 12 women who seem to spend most of their day as being "outraged" about something or other. After hundreds of people testified in favor of forming this commission, the legislature approved it. While fatherhood commissions have done well in other states, Mike Saxl, at the time the radical lefty leader of the Maine House, appointed Deb Simpson to co-chair the commission - to assure it did not do anything. I sat in on the meetings and Simpson would smirk at men testifying about losing their children, and was generally rude and disparaging to them. When a matter came up of making sure that schools gave divorced dads accesstokids' records when those men had the legal right to see those records, Simpson declared" I would NEVER let my kids' dad have access to their school records!"

Her husband is involved in the Maine Democratic party and was recently chastised by the Democratic leadership for running a particularly insulting cartoon about a House Republican on the democratic website.

Maine legislators are part-time, and Deb Simpson's full time job is as a waitress. Noah Adams of National Public Radio did a series about a year ago where he traveled cross-country and interviewed "average" working men and women. He stopped in Lewiston, Maine to interview "average" waitress - who happened to be Representative Deb Simpson and her co-workers. Bag job.

Anyway, I think the loopy left is trying to bring this character up through the political ranks. Watch out!

[SheLion]

I think even the concept of stupidity is lost on the Democrats.

Excuse me, but they are full of chit right up to their eyebrows!

[Shortwave]

I bet they do in Vermont. There are many there that have seen their state lost as well.