Tulsa Legislator Wins AT's Bonehead Award for Gun Sales Tax Repeal Proposal

Okies love their guns. Big ones, little ones, all kinds of rifles, shotguns, handguns, machines guns, bazookas, light tanks, armored personnel carriers, howitzers, Humvees, flamethrowers—you name it.

We love 'em so much that a Tulsa legislator, Democrat Rep. Eric Proctor, wants more of us to have 'em without having to pay those pesky state sales taxes.

Proctor introduced a bill earlier this month to repeal the state sales on guns and ammo, all the better to get more lethal weapons in the hands of people who would rather have a cheap gun than pay taxes (which, as far as we can tell, is about every red-blooded male Oklahoman over about, say, seven years old).

AltTulsa begs to differ. Unlike fear-mongering legislators and their frightened constituents, we don't see bodily harm behind every bush or in every dark corner. Yes, there's plenty of crime in Tulsa (as there is everywhere else) but we don't believe guns in every pocket is the answer. Nor are we arguing for banning guns in the Very Red State of Oklahoma.

Gotta love the NRA, right up there with OU football! And, Jesus, of course!

But we do believe in sensible gun policies (yes, there are such policies, the NRA notwithstanding), and Proctor's measure sounds more like a stunt that a reasonable policy. A sales tax repeal won't lower the price of guns by much in any case, and is unlikely to lead to a safer, saner or more livable Oklahoma.

That's why Rep. Eric Proctor wins AltTulsa's latest Legislative Bonehead Award, grandstanding instead of working for common sense, bipartisan solutions to the difficult problems of crime and guns in Oklahoma.