Guns: The Theater of the Absurd

Today's silliness comes courtesy of Pennsylvania State Representative Mark Keller (R-Landisburg). PA House Bill 2011 would allow any citizen of Pennsylvania to challenge any local gun law. On its face that sound reasonable enough: every person should have the right to challenge their local government pursuant to their Constitutional rights. When you dig deeper, though, this proposed law doesn't make any sense.

Here's why: In 1993, Pennsylvania passed a law that applied preemption to municipal gun laws. What that means is that municipalities cannot enact local ordinances that forbid or otherwise restrict the sale, possession, or carrying of guns. All gun laws in Pennsylvania must be enacted by the state legislature.

That makes a lot of sense when you think about it. What is legal in Cumberland County should also be legal in Allegheny County, Erie County, Potter County, etc. There is no patchwork of laws that might cause an otherwise law-abiding citizen to fall prey to some overzealous law enforcement agency and end up in the pokey simply for unknowingly entering the wrong town.

Therefore, this proposed law addresses a problem that does not exist. Let's take Philadelphia, for instance. A few years back they enacted a couple of local ordinances heavily restricting guns and gun ownership. You know what happened after that? Nothing. A great big collective yawn. The state told Philadelphia that their laws were nullified by preemption and that was that.

So if this passes, citizens will have the right to challenge laws that cannot be enforced. What's next, a challenge to some archaic, long-lost anti-miscegenation law even though they were long ago overturned by the Supreme Court in the Loving decision? Hey, let's challenge anti-sodomy laws while we're at it! Let's clog up the courts with utter nonsense. Let's have cash-strapped municipalities spend even more of our own money to defend themselves against laws that cannot be enforced.

I'm all for challenging restrictive gun laws. I am not, however, interested in some guy proposing something silly just to get his name in the paper and gain a reputation as a friend of gun owners during an election year. Politics is often the theater of the absurd, especially when it comes to guns. Let's hope this particular play ends up being a comedy, because if it passes it will be a political tragedy.