CITY OF SEATTLE
ORDINANCE __________________
COUNCIL BILL __________________
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AN ORDINANCE related to imposing a tax on engaging in the business of making retail sales of firearms and ammunition; amending Sections 5.30.010, 5.30.060, 5.55.010, 5.55.040, 5.55.060, 5.55.150, 5.55.165, 5.55.220, and 5.55.230 of the Seattle Municipal Code; and adding a new Chapter 5.50 to the Seattle Municipal Code.
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WHEREAS, in 2013 Public Health Seattle & King County published a report detailing the effects of gun violence, finding that there were on average 131 firearms deaths per year in King County from 2006-2010, with another 536 individuals hospitalized for nonfatal firearm injuries during this same five year period; and
WHEREAS, Public Health estimated the total economic costs of firearm deaths and injuries in the County to average $181 million per year from 2009-2013; and
WHEREAS, in 2014 alone, the direct medical costs of treating 253 gunshot wound victims at Harborview Medical Center, the regional trauma center for the Pacific Northwest, reached more than $17 million, or approximately $68,000 per gunshot victim; and
WHEREAS, taxpayer funds covered more than $12 million of Harborview's 2014 direct medical costs, with private health care payments covering the balance; and
WHEREAS, after the December 2012 massacre of 20 schoolchildren and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, the Seattle City Council renewed in earnest its efforts to seek solutions for gun safety at the municipal level; and
WHEREAS, in June 2013 the City Council passed C.B. 117770, a public health gun safety package that made Seattle the first city in the nation to provide local government funding for basic gun safety research; and
WHEREAS, in July 2014 the Harborview Injury Prevention and Research Center presented a groundbreaking report on the predictors and consequences of firearm violence in King County, later published in the peer-reviewed Annals of...
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