Jeff Hawkes
Being a responsible American comes with certain obligations.
Jury duty, for one. The government expects us to show up, and it fines those who don't.
If we want to remodel our kitchen, the government says, Get a permit. If we want to marry, we need a license. If we have kids, we're obligated to see they don't skip school. If we have a yard, we have to make sure the grass doesn't get too high. If we walk a dog in the park, we have to pick up its poop.
Out of respect for the greater good we're expected as citizens to perform generally innocuous duties.
And innocuous is what I call an obligation Lancaster city imposes upon citizens who own guns. A 2009 ordinance requires gun owners to file a police report if a firearm is lost or stolen.
"We take reports when people's lawn ornaments get stolen," Police Chief Keith Sadler notes. "It's really asinine that you wouldn't want to report a stolen gun."
But making law-abiding citizens report a lost or stolen gun is anathema to state Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, a western Pennsylvania Republican who likes his freedom and who likes his guns.
"I don't need the government to pass a law to tell me to do that," Metcalfe told me. "It's an additional law that throws a wide net over the population."
What particularly galls Metcalfe is how Lancaster and 29 other cities and towns in Pennsylvania have passed lost-or-stolen ordinances despite a state prohibition on municipal regulation of firearms.
Fighting back, Metcalfe introduced a bill "to stop little tyrants at the local level from enacting their own gun control measures." The bill, co-sponsored by six Lancaster County representatives, may be voted on this week. It would penalize any city that loses a suit filed against its gun regulation.
Not that monetary penalties are enough for Metcalfe. "I'd personally like to put elected officials who violate the law in jail," he said.
The National Rifle Association loves the bill, saying gun owners shouldn't be fined for not knowing which town has a law and which doesn't. On that point I agree with the NRA. I think gun regulation should be uniform.
City and town councils started passing lost-or-stolen measures only after a push for a state law failed in 2008.
"They were desperate to do anything they could to send a message to criminals that trafficking in illegal guns wouldn't be tolerated," Max Nacheman of CeaseFirePA said.
The aim of lost-or-stolen laws is to stop gun sales to bad guys. (Black-market sellers dodge responsibility by claiming one of their guns used in a crime was lost or stolen, not sold.)
So it would seem a state law on reporting missing firearms would deter crime.
But Metcalfe opposes statewide regulation, too. "It would subject law-abiding citizens to more scrutiny," he said. "It's not a proven (law-enforcement) tool."
Except Metcalfe undermined his argument by telling me if his gun were stolen, he'd tell the police.
"I want (them) to catch the criminal," he said.
So is Metcalfe really worried about scrutiny? Does he really think giving police information is ineffective?
Or is he just unwilling to admit a gun law can make sense?
