Addressing the Need to Adequately Tax Guns and Ammunition
WHEREAS, Homicide has been the leading cause of death for Black men ages 15 to 44 for more than half a century, and more than 86% of homicides in Black communities involve firearms; and
WHEREAS, The increase in suicide by gunfire is particularly pronounced for Black youth; and
WHEREAS, The bullets and guns that make homicide and suicide as easy and efficient as pulling a trigger are manufactured by corporations and sold to make a profit by gun manufacturers to federally licensed firearms dealers and by for-profit federally licensed firearms dealers to the general public; and
WHEREAS, The gun industry is disproportionately white-owned and operated, while victims of gun violence are disproportionately Black, for example, in Illinois, firearms dealers are 97.2% white and less than 1% Black, while 57% of victims of fatal gun assault are Black; and
WHEREAS, When firearms dealers open in disadvantaged neighborhoods, shootings increase in the surrounding areas; and
WHEREAS, Enforcement of firearms laws is disproportionately focused on individuals in possession of firearms, instead of on firearms manufacturers and distributors, contributing greatly to racial disparities in incarceration, e.g. in 2019, 42% of all people arrested for unlawful firearm possession offenses in the United States were Black, while only 18% of non-white people are gun owners versus 38% of white people; and
WHEREAS, Harvard Medical School researchers found that gun violence costs the U.S. approximately $557 billion annually, or 2.6% of gross domestic product, furthermore the majority of that cost is attributed to quality-of-life losses among those injured by firearms and their families, who are disproportionately Black; and
WHEREAS, Harm from industries such as the tobacco and opioid industries has been curtailed by forcing the industry to pay for a fraction of the destructive costs of their product.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) strongly urges the repeal of federal gun industry immunity in the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA), passage of truth in advertising laws for firearms, and additional regulation of federally licensed firearms dealers to reduce dangerous patterns and practices in firearm sales.
BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED, that the NAACP strongly urges the local, state, and federal passage of taxes on guns and ammunition, with tax proceeds going to jurisdictions with disproportionately high percentages of gun violence and used to defray the individual and societal costs of gun violence.