Duplicating a program started in California last year, Maryland lawmakers proposed an 11% excise tax on guns and ammunition sold in the state to be directed to the state’s emergency care trauma centers in hospitals around the state, the units that primarily deal with gunshot wound victims, the Baltimore Banner reports.
Maryland has eleven trauma centers around the state, including the top-level Maryland Shock Trauma operated at the University of Maryland Hospital in Baltimore. This year’s budget for the trauma units projected a $30 million shortfall; the proposed new tax would raise more than $22 million.
The excise tax would be added on top of all other costs, and retailers would pass it along to consumers. The plan to fund Maryland trauma units through firearm sales replicates the Maryland Trauma Physician Services Fund, which puts a $5 fee on all vehicle licenses that is then sent to the budget for the trauma centers.