BELLEVUE, WA – Attorneys representing the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) and its news publication, TheGunMag.com, today filed for summary judgment in a lawsuit filed against the City of Seattle that alleges failure to comply with the state’s Public Records Act (PRA).
Last year, TheGunMag.com – a print and on-line monthly magazine – sought information from the city about its first quarter revenues from a controversial “gun violence tax” levied on the sale of firearms and ammunition in Seattle. The city has refused to turn over the information on the grounds that it would violate the privacy of individual gun dealers by revealing the taxes they paid under the ordinance.
SAF is involved in a separate lawsuit against the gun tax that is joined by the National Rifle Association and National Shooting Sports Foundation, along with two gun stores.
“The fact that the city has steadfastly refused to provide information on the amount of taxes it has received puts the credibility of their initial revenue forecast in serious doubt,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “The city originally claimed this tax would bring in between $300,000 and $500,000 annually, but their silence now is deafening.”
TheGunMag.com Senior Editor Dave Workman, who filed the PRA request last year, said this is a First Amendment issue.
“Seattle taxpayers and the firearms retailers who are directly affected by this tax have a right to know if the city projections were accurate or way off base,” he said. “We’ve never been interested in which retailer paid how much. We just want the public to know the tax revenue total, because the public has a right to this information.”
Plaintiffs are represented by Seattle attorneys Steven Fogg and David Edwards with Corr, Cronin, Michelson, Baumgardner, Fogg & Moore. Fogg and Edwards also represent SAF, the NRA and NSSF in their challenge of the Seattle gun tax on the grounds that it violates the state’s 33-year-old preemption statute.