When the Supreme Court handed down its decision in D.C. vs. Heller, one of the first people to speak out against the ruling was Chicago mayor Richard Daley, who stated flatly that he was going to raise taxes in response. It's worth talking about the fact that the sales tax in Chicago is already so outrageous, but that's another discussion.
[Update: I partially misquoted Daley. Actually he said:
"If the result of this ruling is more guns on the street it's going to make it more challenging for law enforcement," Daley said, predicting an end to Chicago's handgun ban would spark new violence and force the city to raise taxes to pay for new police.
Emphasis mine. Deval Patrick isn't waiting for the if. He's just going to do it. No proof of anything is needed for Patrick to justify himself in this state.]
When Da Mayor speaks, the rest of the liberals listen and fall in line. Yesterday Governor Deval Patrick (D - Clinton) filed a special appropriations bill that drastically raises the fees on firearms dealers and licensees in Massachusetts. If passed, the new legislation will raise the fees for a dealer license in Massachusetts by 350%, increase the 6-year License to Carry fee by 100%, and increase the yearly non-resident LTC fee by 150%. Massachusetts is in such bad shape financially that Deval Patrick doesn't have the option to raise taxes on the entire state just because of D.C. vs. Heller, so instead he's taking a spiked pipe to everyone in the state who sells, owns, or wants to get licensed to own a gun.
Sections 24 & 25 will increase state licensed firearm dealer’s fees from $100 for three years to $250. Then within that three-year period, licensed dealers will be charged an additional $100 inspection fee per year. This tactic would turn a $100 three-year dealer's license into a $450 three-year license.
Section 26 would increase a resident License to Carry fee from $100 for six years to $200 for six years and Section 27 would increase a non-resident License to Carry fee from $100 for one year to $250 for one year.
As is par for the course in Massachusetts, these fee increases are purely punitive, absolutely arbitrary and ideologically motivated. There's not much anyone who doesn't live in MA can do to prevent these measures from being voted into law, but people should be on alert that if it passes here in MA, similar measures are on the way in your home state.
The D.C. vs. Heller legacy is rapidly evolving into another excuse for cash-strapped state governments (or just plain anti-gun state governments) run by Democrats to take another whack at their favorite victims for ideological reasons. Obviously if you live in Massachusetts you should be contacting your representatives, and if you don't, I'd like to reiterate:
Defend Liberty -- Join the NRA | Live in Massachusetts? Join GOAL.
The 2nd Amendment is worded horribly by today's use of English. The 2nd does seemingly grant the right to have guns [for self defense], but one would be hard pressed to find that meaning if one only knew modern vernacular [thats were the trouble lies].
With new SCOTUS ruling, the higher fees would need to be highly justified, since all laws/fees that curtail rights have to be the least intrusive possible and serve a legitimate government interest.