A bill imposing a five-percent tax on sales of firearms and ammunition was introduced by two North Jersey lawmakers in the Assembly yesterday.
The money would pay for safety improvements in public buildings, including schools. The new tax would come on top of New Jersey’s existing seven-percent sales tax.
Assemblywoman Connie Wagner, D-Paramus, said the idea came after last month’s Newtown, Conn., elementary school shooting. People approached her with suggestions on tightening school security, she said, but their plans did not include a way to pay for the changes.
“I’m sure the tax is not going to be very popular, but who is going to pay for this?” she said. “I feel that this is the best way to pay for it,” she said, adding that her proposal is akin to the state’s existing cigarette tax, which helps reimburse hospitals for certain costs and goes into the state’s general fund.
The tax money would be used for a “Safety Tax Fund,” which would pay for “safety infrastructure improvements in public buildings,” according to the text of the bill. Those improvements could include security cameras, panic buttons, door locks or anything else a school or other public building feels is necessary, Wagner said. The bill, which is only a page and a half long, does not create a specific mechanism for distributing the funds.
Wagner, who is sponsoring the bill along with Assemblyman Timothy Eustace, D-Maywood, said she knows the measure will not prevent every act of violence, but she thinks it is a start.
“We’re never going to be safe every place we go, and I understand that, but I think we have to do everything we can,” she said.
The bill has not been assigned to a committee yet, and a Senate version has not been introduced.
The legislation is the latest in a group of bills introduced since the Newtown shooting aimed at gun control or violence prevention. Another proposal, sponsored by Assemblywoman Angelica Jiminez, D-Hudson, would require anyone applying for a permit to buy a gun to undergo a psychological evaluation.
Assembly Majority Leader Lou Greenwald, D-Camden, and Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg, D-Teaneck, are sponsoring legislation that would require all ammunition sales to be conducted face-to-face, prohibiting any Internet, mail order or telephone sales.
And two other bills would reduce the number of bullets magazines could legally hold — one would limit magazine sizes to five rounds, the other would set the limit at 10 rounds. The current limit in New Jersey is 15 rounds.
