The United States Olympic Biathlon team has never won a medal of any kind. And they lose not because of the skiing portion of the competition, but because of the marksmanship portion. Of the 20 shots taken, Olympic medal winners need to get all 20 shots. The closest an American has come was by a female athlete who got 19 of 20 shots. Why? Because, unlike Europe, the U.S. doesn’t generally have shooting as a sport in its high schools and marksmanship is all about practice. If an athlete doesn’t start shooting until after high school, they have a lot of catching up to do. Biathletes should shoot at least 100 rounds in a practice session, easily 3000 rounds per month.
After the war, my father was a marksman and was often #1 in the State of Michigan. He also could easily go through 3000 rounds in a month of target practice. And on the occasional Saturday during the summer, I’m invited to play Rural Golf at my neighbor’s farm. Meaning an afternoon of shooting clay pigeons where we go through about 500 rounds of ammunition.
In all of these sports, you go through a lot of ammunition. More than 99% of ammunition used in the U.S. is for target practice and sports.
One of the justifications I hear for a Trump vote is that Democrats are planning to tax ammunition to put an end to these sports. I always push back arguing that it made no sense as it would not deter a mass shooter, would penalize rural voters and sports enthusiasts while at the same time making owning a gun less safe. This had to be fake news. Not going to happen.
Leave it to California to prove me wrong
Governor Newsom confirmed voters’ fears when he recently signed legislation imposing a tax on both guns and ammunition. The advocates for this tax openly acknowledged that the tax would have no effect on mass shootings of any kind. It is intended to be a punitive tax like that on alcohol and tobacco. The tax revenues raised would be spent on school safety in suburban and ex-urban cities where shootings occur. In other words, a punitive tax on lower income rural voters and spending that money on the affluent. It would also reduce target practice, which is an essential component of safely owning a firearm.
Let’s look at the impact of just a $.10 per round tax. For the 500 rounds we use in a Saturday of Rural Golf, this would be an extra $50. Biathletes already complain about the price of ammunition. Going through 3000 rounds in a month would be a $300 additional tax. For my father practicing for a competition, it would also be a $300 additional tax.
It gets even worse - some advocates want to raise the tax up to $1 per round and extend it to all states. That would be a $500 tax on our rural golf outing and a $3000 per month tax on a competitive marksman. That would essentially eliminate these sports. If we really wanted to increase school safety, we would impose a tax on all football equipment.
A tax also makes gun ownership less safe. Any gun expert will tell you that if you are going to own a gun you need to practice regularly. That requires ammunition and it is easy to go through 500 rounds in a month. Taxing ammunition simply makes practice less likely and thus gun ownership less safe.
These punitive tax revenues would be spent on the more affluent who live in suburban and ex-urban cities where shootings occur. What politician would impose a tax on ammunition so that these sports enthusiasts practice less? What voter would support a punitive tax on rural sports that would constitute a wealth transfer from the poor to the affluent? Legislation that makes gun ownership less safe? This goes against every Democratic value that I hold.
Governor Newsom doubled down on last year’s debacle of eliminating funding for gun safety
I was impressed Governor Newsom debated Governor DeSantis. The facts were against him, yet he won the debate in my eyes. That’s impressive.
But passing an ammunition tax four months before one of the most important elections in history? Not only is the legislation counterproductive, showing a lack of insight, but the timing shows a lack of strategic decision making ability. It also shows a lack of ability to push back on one’s base when appropriate. What it does show is a desire to pander to the most extreme faction of his base without thinking it through. It shows that the candidate has the wrong team advising him. This does not wear well.
This on top of the debacle late last year when the Department of Education announced it was ceasing all funding for gun safety and hunter safety classes in high schools. No rational person would do this. The European countries that have high school Biathlon teams and that have gun safety classes in high school also do not have school mass shootings. I have a hunch that if someone took the time to look at those high school students in the U.S. who took a hunting safety class, they would find that none of those students has committed a mass shooting.
This blunder knocks out Governor Newsom as a viable candidate for President. Instead of losing just 55% of the rural vote, he would get as close as possible to losing all of it. I can’t imagine how this got past his rural farm advisor.
The potential silver lining for Governor Newsom
One of Donald Trump’s greatest strengths is his ability to push back on his base, change its position, and lead it to a new position. He just did that with abortion. This shows strength to voters. Governor Newsom can do the same.
The Governor seems like a pretty smart guy to me and I have to believe that he has figured out by now that taxing ammunition is bad legislation and hurts Democrats. He should immediately repeal the ammunition tax. He made a mistake and corrected it. A repeal would show that he learns from his mistakes and corrects them. It would also show that he is able to push back on the extremes of his base and lead it forward. It would show that he listens. A repeal would move the needle tremendously in his favor.
Democratic candidates need to be able to authentically speak on this tax without hesitation
Trump will figure this out at some point – it is his genius. He will seize this as another example of how Democrats are trying to destroy rural culture, how he is the only one who can fix this, and that you simply can’t trust Democrats to make good decisions. Democrats can’t afford to let this happen.
Democrats and the urban press need to understand this issue and be able to forcefully oppose an ammunition tax and intelligently talk about why it is a bad idea. Any Democrat will move the needle favorably by showing an understanding of guns, gun safety, the sporting use of guns and ammunition.
Democrats need to stop giving themselves self-inflicted wounds like this. Rural voters are a wealth of practical, common sense and often progressive insights. Listening to rural voters would have avoided Newsom’s blunder. It isn’t enough to throw rural voters a bone every once in a while. Democrats need to start listening.