Chautauqua County hunters and shooters may want to start making plans to head to Pennsylvania to buy ammunition in the event New York’s proposed 5 cent tax on each round of ammunition actually becomes law.

Hunters and sportsmen in other parts of the state won’t be so lucky. If they want to continue enjoying the outdoors sports they enjoy, they’ll have to pay more for the privilege of exercising their Second Amendment rights.

S.8415 has been proposed in the Senate with companion legislation expected in the Assembly. While the bills haven’t been argued in a legislative committee yet, raising money for the Gun Violence Research Fund seems to be a top priority for legislative Democrats and Gov. Kathy Hochul.

In our view, the state doesn’t need money from responsible gun owners to pay for gun violence research that the state can easily pay for itself. The extra billions of dollars in spending proposed by the Senate and Assembly for the 2022-23 state budget is proof of that.

The state Assembly recently passed legislation that allows those who feel strongly about gun violence research to donate to the cause on their state tax returns. During debate on the tax form donation to gun violence research, Assemblyman Andrew Goodell, R-Jamestown, made a point we wish more state legislators would consider – the state needs to look at the root causes of violence, period.

“The concern many of us have is the focus on firearms is the wrong focus,” he said. “The right focus ought to be on the invdividual who is committing violence, whether they’re committing it with a firearm or a knife or a blunt instrument. And if you look at the number of very serious assaults you realize that firearms account for part of that, but only part of it.”

Goodell is right, in our opinion. Gun violence is a problem, but it’s part of a larger problem. It’s fine if the state wants to study the causes of violence to determine future policy initiatives. It should do so on its own, and study the cause of all violence, not just guns.