Never saw that coming

If you want less of something, you tax it. The more you tax it, the less of that something you will get. Of course, that also means that you will get less tax revenue from taxing that something, because there is less of that something happening. That is simply how things work. Seattle, apparently, has not figured this out:

When the City of Seattle passed a tax on all sales of guns and ammunition, the measure was hailed as a way to defray the rising costs of gun violence.
But since the tax took effect, those costs have only risen as gun violence in the city has surged. And the tax has apparently brought in much less than city leaders projected it would.

The igno-liberal who brought this tax to the table thought it would generate $300,00 to $500,00 per year in tax revenue. Oddly, enough, that didn't happen, as gun stores in Seattle promptly move outside the city limits. Why? The law made it too expensive to do business in city limits:

Seattle City Councilman Tim Burgess introduced the tax in 2015. It puts a $25 tax on every firearm sold in the city and up to 5 cents per round of ammunition. The measure easily passed and took effect January 1, 2016. Comparing the first five months of 2017 with the same period before the gun tax went into effect, reports of shots fired are up 13 percent, the number of people injured in shootings climbed 37 percent and gun deaths doubled, according to crime statistics from the Seattle Police Department.

That's a lot of extra cost. People can go where those extra costs are not imposed in a case like this, with a city tax. Just go to a store in the county where the tax does no apply. Simple. Apparently, city officials never contemplated this possibility. Libtards always do their tax-impact analysis on a static basis, as if increased taxes will not affect behavior. All evidence shows that higher taxes on a particular activity will result in less of that activity, but libtards keep pretending otherwise. Predictably, higher taxes never produce the revenue expected, and this case was no different:

In selling his gun tax to the public, Burgess predicted it would generate between $300,000 and $500,000 annually. The money would be used to study the root causes of gun violence in hopes of reducing the costs to taxpayers.
Seattle officials refuse to say how much the tax brought in the first year, only giving the number “under $200,000.” Gun rights groups have sued to get the exact amount.
But Mike Coombs, owner of Outdoor Emporium, the last large gun dealer left in Seattle, said the actual tax revenue is almost certainly just over $100,000, a figure based on information he says the city shared with his lawyers.
Coombs said storewide, sales are down 20 percent while gun sales have plummeted 60 percent.

Please note that there is only one large gun dealer left in Seattle. I assume his lease is too hard to break for him to leave the city. But he knows how much he pays in taxes, and I'll bet he can figure out how much the remaining small dealers pay under this (probably unconstitutional) tax. So if this guy says the city is collecting closer to $100,000 that $200,000, I believe him. I also believe the tax is failing to do anything except drive gun stores out of Seattle. It isn't driving guns out of Seattle, just the stores where law-abiding citizens can buy guns. Not sure how that is supposed to be a good thing.