Colorado’s Legislature has referred to the voters the question of applying a 6.5% excise tax to the purchase of firearms and ammunition to fund multiple mental health prevention and treatment services. Estimated revenue in the first year is $39 million, and the recipients would include those supporting at-risk youths, veterans, victims of domestic violence, school safety and gun violence prevention.
A crime victim services fund will be created to receive most of the tax proceeds, a tax that will be applied beginning April 1, 2025. Smaller subsequent amounts are specified for the behavioral health administration and the veterans’ mental health services program.
The Durango Herald’s editorial board supports the question.
Advocates for the tax in the legislation point to the need for a dedicated revenue source that would be added to whatever state and federal mental health funding is available to help meet the considerable challenge of treating mental health issues. They say that the calls to a state crisis services hotline have increased 30% since the COVID-19 pandemic began and that Children’s Hospital has treated 10% more children experiencing thoughts of suicide.
From the legislation, in Colorado, a gun suicide occurs every 13 hours, with 73% of all gun deaths in Colorado being suicides. Half of all gun deaths among children and teens are suicides. The veteran suicide rate in Colorado “is significantly higher than both the national average and the national general population suicide rate.”
Those of all ages who seem to express themselves for some reason by using a gun against powerless victims need mental health services. Applying those services before those events is obviously what is needed, and with additional resources that should be increasingly possible. Just how far the estimated first year $39 million will go may be uncertain, but we feel the effort is worthwhile.
Those who stridently defend the right of Americans to own and use weapons argue that when a gun is misused it is the user, not the weapon, that’s to blame. Here is an appropriate opportunity to generate money to provide mental health services to the potential user.
Vote “yes” on House Bill 24-1349.
