dumb question

[tomneal]

I probably have this wrong but...

If it is constitutional for Illinois to require gun owners to purchase a $10 FOID card.
AND
Chicago charges a $25 tax on new guns
Then
Why are poll taxes unconstitutional?

[bayouhazard]

You seem to be assuming Los Supremos have read the United States Constitution, have the intellectual horsepower to understand what the words "not" and "infringed" mean, and enough honor or integrity to care.

[EEllis]

Poll taxes are unconstitutional because they were used to prevent people from being able to vote. Gun taxes are not obviously unconstitutional on their face as taxes are charged on them and just about any product sold to the public. Now if you want to make a reasonable and at least semi cognitive argument then you must say why applying a extra tax on firearms is unconstitutional. You would have a possible argument that they are trying to implement a gun control by cost thus unduly affecting the poor and since so many of the poor in Chicago are black then they are trying to keep the poor blacks from having guns. The racist, classest, elitist scum!

[gdanaher]

As stated the poll tax was invented to prevent ethnic minorities from participating in the electoral system. Additionally there were literacy laws designed to limit access to the electoral process. We continue to have a legacy of this in the form of the voter registration card that serves little or no purpose today, Originally used as a receipt of payment for the poll tax, it later served as proof of voter registration but not required to vote. I first registered to vote in Texas in 1975 and have never used a voter card to prove eligibility to vote.

A unique tax such as on City of Chicago gun purchases does not impede the purchase or ownership of a firearm. $25 is a fractional percentage of the purchase price and is hardly comparable to past deliberate voter restrictions. There are taxes on cars, travel tickets, shoes, and horses. There are taxes on religious documents. You generally need a permit which requires a fee to hold a public rally of any sort. If you desire to eliminate all taxes on products related to your constitutional rights you are going to have to generate a lot of alternate revenue sources.

[tomneal]

State and local officials are pushing a new way to expand gun control: taxes.
Gun owners in and around Chicago last week started paying a new $25 tax on every firearm they purchase. In California, a statehouse panel on April 15 will hear testimony on a nickel-per-bullet tax measure, and in New Jersey, lawmakers want to slap an additional 5 percent sales tax on guns and ammo.


Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/04/g ... z2Q0453IBS" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Recently I've read news articles like the one above that say politicians are adding taxes to guns and ammo to deter poor people from buying guns and ammo. This seems just as unconstitutional as charging a $25 poll tax to deter poor people from voting.

Your Mileage may vary...

[RoyGBiv]

You should change the tread title.
It was not a dumb question.

More of a question.