Guest Essay: The Germ of an Idea

[Foreword: Andy Barniskis has some suggestions for dealing with Philadelphia's bid for "independence" in developing and enforcing citizen disarmament laws.]

The Germ of an Idea
Andy Barniskis

Friends:

The most recent threat to gun rights from Philadelphia, in the form of a suit to force the General Assembly to give them the political autonomy to enforce their own gun laws (a package of which they have just enacted illegally), puts us in an all too familiar position. That is, there is little we can do except to defend ourselves, while our enemies are confident that we cannot strike back in any way. They cannot LOSE; they can only win or not win in this round, and in the latter case, come back to try again another day.

But that is only true if we continue our pattern of treating defense of the Right to Keep and Bear Arms as an issue isolated from all of the rest. That is our perennial failing; our enemies can never lose anything they value; only we can. I therefore propose the following germ of an idea we need to press upon our suburban legislators: Political autonomy should come at an economic price.

Philadelphia already has sufficient political autonomy to allow itself to support the vast majority of murders in our state, despite having less than one-tenth of the state's population.
That, while receiving huge amounts of law enforcement support from the rest of us. Now, they want to enact firearms legislation that we all know cannot work. When it doesn't work, they will of course cry that it is because the rest of the state hasn't enacted the same laws. Then we will be battling on our home turf.

Here are some suggested proposals for amendments to any legislation intended to give Philadelphia autonomy to enforce its own firearms legislation:

• To partially compensate gun owners in Philadelphia (and perhaps to help with their emigration expenses) all Philadelphians should be excused from paying taxes to the state.
• Philadelphia should be granted full economic autonomy, receiving no further funding of any form from the state.
• To clarify the economic situation, there should be no further funding of regional political entities, like SEPTA. Those should be ended and Philadelphia given the freedom to provide the necessary mass transit and other infrastructure within its own borders.
• Counties should be held responsible for the law enforcement costs their residents place upon their neighbors. E.g., Philadelphia should be billed for the apprehension, detainment and trial of Philadelphia citizens who are convicted of committing crimes in the suburban counties, and vice versa.
• The Pennsylvania State Police should not provide any law enforcement services in Philadelphia.

Those are only a few introductory ideas for further enhancing Philadelphia's desired political autonomy. Achieving it will be extremely complex, but that very complexity also promises scores of additional opportunities for freeing the rest of us.

Tell your legislators and tell your friends. Freedom for and from Philadelphia!