As AWR Hawkins of Breitbart News noted, San Jose’s city council passed the mandatory fee and liability insurance ordinance fees on January 25, 2022.
Per the Slate report, the city fee is $25. Liccardo was quoted in saying that the fees will go towards a foundation run by “Stanford professors, an epidemiologist who has been focused on gun harm, and nonprofit experts who understand domestic violence prevention programs, suicide prevention.”
Liccardo claimed that the ordinance mandating the fee is “civil,” as opposed to criminal in nature. The San Jose Mayor revealed, however, that failure to pay the fee will lead to the confiscation of the firearm.
Liccardo explained:
For example, there’s a bar brawl and they’re patting down everybody and someone’s got a gun. “Have you paid your fee? You have insurance?” “No.” OK, well, there’s an opportunity for us to remove the gun. And then when the gun owner comes back and demonstrates that they comply with the law and they’re a lawful gun owner, they get their gun back. But in the meantime, you’ve taken a gun out of a bar brawl. And that’s not a bad thing.
Liccardo tried to spin this city fee as not being a tax:
I don’t blame anyone for being emotional about this. These are really important issues that go to the core of what we believe about freedoms and rights and our own safety. But I’d say this. First, it’s a fee, it’s not a tax, and I won’t go into the details about what the difference is, but the reality is that in this country, there have been taxes on guns and ammunition since at least 1919, and they’ve been upheld by the courts. So the fact that there’s a constitutional right attached somewhere to the exercise of a particular activity doesn’t mean it can’t be regulated, taxed, or have a fee imposed.
Any type of fee, tax, or regulation on people’s right to bear arms constitutes an infringement of said right. Plain and simple. Those who deny this are engaging in Olympic-level mental gymnastics.
Thankfully, there are groups such as the National Foundation for Gun Rights who are standing up against egregious gun grabs at the local level by filing lawsuits against these unconstitutional actions.
The Left understands the power of local politics and they use it as a springboard for bigger power grabs. It cannot be stressed enough on why it’s so important to stop the Left in their tracks at the local level.
By doing so, the Left can be deprived of its power base.
José Niño is a freelance writer and political analyst based in Austin, Texas. Sign up for his mailing list here Contact him via Facebook or Twitter. Get his premium newsletter on political strategy here. Subscribe to his Substack here.
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