Ownership and use of guns and ammo are sins?

I just have to shake my head at the person that wrote this headline.

Apparently my definition of sin (I’m with Heinlein on this one) is far different from theirs. What other specific enumerated right is considered a sin by this person? Would the taxing of churches of a different persuasion be considered a sin tax in their eyes? What about taxing writing letters to the editor? Or taxing your right to remain silent? After all, they know they can’t ban your silence so maybe they can just tax it. How does the rate of a dollar a minute sound? That is the way the got NFA34 through. They didn’t ban short barreled shotguns and machine guns–they just taxed them at a rate of $200 per transfer (in 1934 dollars!).

Of course using Heinlein’s definition of sin results in their entire set of taxes being unrelated to sin–except in the sense that the collections of taxes in itself tends to follow under the definition of sin. And I find Heinlein’s caution in regards to “strong drink” and tax collectors illuminating in this case as well.

H/T to Sebastian.

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2 thoughts on “Ownership and use of guns and ammo are sins?

  1. Sin taxes are intended to discourage the “sin” in question, and to mitigate the damage caused by the sin. Usually though, they’re just scams to raise more revenue.

    Even if you consider hunting to be a sin, Pittman-Robertson is not a sin tax, since the money collected actually goes to conserve game so that it can be hunted, thus encouraging hunting (and, incidentally, improving the environment, protecting endangered species and conserving wild places for everyone to enjoy).

    Not a scam, not a disincentive, PR fails both tests. Therefore, it’s not a sin tax.

    Maybe “user fee” would be a better term.

  2. Well, strictly speaking, in Christian theology, a sin is something which you believe to be a wrong thing to do, and you go ahead and do it anyway. One’s conscience may be wrong, in the greater scheme of things, but one should never go against one’s own conscience, as that just sets up internal conflicts in his head.

    P.s. The comment function seems to be working again. I’ll try to post my belching comment again. Fortunately, I wrote it down in longhand, not trusting Mr. Gates, or AT&T, or the Ubuntu guys, or anybody else to make these gizmos work correctly.

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