The owner of a gun shop in Greenwood is moving his business to Lynnwood to avoid a new gun tax that takes effect Jan. 1.
Seattle’s new law requires a $25 tax on each gun sold and $.02 or $.05 on ammunition, depending on the caliber.
Sergey Solyanik, the owner of Precise Shooter, is one of two gun shop owners in the city who joined with the National Rifle Association to sue Seattle. But last week, a King County judge upheld the tax.
While the plaintiffs may appeal, Solyanik has stopped selling guns to avoid the tax and will only sell cleaning supplies and accessories until permits and licensing go through for his new Lynnwood location.
“When people buy guns on the Internet, they have to pay shipping and transfer fee, and that basically is our margin,” Solyanik said.
He said the margin is about 10 percent. If the new tax is paid, Solyanik said that would be 5 percent of his business, and he still needs to pay employees.
“It eats all of our profit. The problem with the tax is that it’s proportional to the sales. The more I sell, the more I lose,” he said.
Precise Shooter LLC also owns the building where it’s located. So the business will incur the additional cost of rent in Lynnwood. Yet, Solyanik said the cost of the move and the new rent will still be cheaper than paying what he believes would be $50,000 a year in Seattle gun taxes.
Customers in the shop said they would stop buying guns in Seattle.
“Given the opportunity to pay one price five miles from here, or an additional $25 here, why would I do that? It doesn’t make any sense,” said Ryan Angell.
Angell said he agrees there should be something done about gun violence, but he doesn’t believe this tactic will make any money for the city for those purposes.
“That’s not going to happen, because they’re not going to sell any guns in Seattle,” he said.
Outdoor Emporium is the other gun shop involved in the lawsuit against the city. The owner there said the fight is not over yet and did not want to comment further.
Capitol Loans, a pawn shop in Capitol Hill, said it would pass the $25 tax onto the customer, since gun sales are not the majority of their business.