Last week, Brett Smiley announced his candidacy for Providence’s mayor and came out with a mind-boggling idea. Let’s tax gun owners to pay for non-violence programs. Again, we’re going to punish the law-abiding to pay for the ones causing the problem. The ones causing the violence problems are not the ones who will be paying the tax. This is like only taxing marathon runners to pay for the obese.

Even worse, Smiley proposes this as a statewide idea. But he’s running for mayor of Providence. He’s proposing an idea that is better served by someone running for Governor or General Assembly, yet he’s running for mayor. If he wasn’t one of the darlings of the progressives, this would be branded “amateur hour.”

Providence Journal link to his announcement and proposal: http://www.providencejournal.com/breaking-news/content/20131204-democrat-brett-smiley-enters-race-for-providence-mayor.ece