Gale Warning

by Daryl Gale

A Good Tax

At about 9:45 Monday night, I was sitting on the bed watching CNN when gunshots rang out on my street. Gunfire, while certainly a frequent occurrence in my South Philly neighborhood, usually tends to sound distant enough that it’s impossible to determine how far away the shooter is, or from what direction the shots are coming.

But Monday night was different. Seven shots in rapid succession from what sounded to me like a handgun. So close I could have sworn the shooter was standing on my front stoop.

After putting my shoes back on and padding downstairs no more than three minutes later, I opened the front door and saw that police were already on the scene. The response time was remarkable. There were three patrol cars with lights flashing, and several cops were busy checking under cars and in nearby alleys. My neighbors, too, had come outside in the rain to see what was going on. I found this somehow comforting; at least they’re concerned enough to check it out, as opposed to hiding under their sofas.

The neighbors and I talked a bit among ourselves in the driving rain, as police used flashlights to continue searching for shell casings. The conversation was sincere, but sadly routine.

Somebody should do something about these teenagers and their guns, one said.

They need jobs and hope for the future, chimed in another.

Shaking their heads sadly, the neighbors one by one returned to their homes, and we left the police to do their jobs.

According to Officer Sheila Smith, a spokeswoman for the Philadelphia Police, the call (or calls) came in at 9:48 p.m., but officers on patrol in the area had heard the shots themselves, so they were on scene almost immediately. After investigating, the police found nothing. Negative results, is how Smith put it. No shell casings. No bullet holes in houses or cars. Nothing.

The whole thing got me to thinking: Why can’t we do something about these teenagers and their guns? Why are my neighbors willing and ready to throw up their hands in defeat, conceding our streets to the parasites?

I decided to ask some people who ought to know, and ought to be able to do something about it.

State Rep. Jewell Williams lives on the other side of town, but he’s no stranger to gun violence. Williams was one of the organizers of last weekend’s March to Stop the Violence, which was held in the wake of the shooting of Faheem Thomas-Childs, the 10-year-old North Philadelphia child killed by a stray bullet Feb. 11 on his way to T.M. Peirce Elementary school. Tuesday afternoon, I asked Williams about the sharp rise in gun violence among young people, and if he really thinks we can stop it. I specifically asked about a notion I’d been kicking around for a while: that if the NRA and the gun lobby are intractable about the inalienable God-given right to bear arms, maybe we could get around them by greatly restricting access to ammunition, either through huge taxes or special permits.

"We’re in a constant dialogue about gun violence in the legislature," Williams said. "We’re trying to talk about the human side to the gun violence. We want to put a face to every statistic. It’s not just another random shooting somewhere, and "Oh, well. That’s somebody’s dead child.’"

We talked about my proposed legislation, which for now I’m calling The Expensive Single Bullet Theory.

"That’s not a bad idea," he laughed. "But it’s not a new idea either. That one comes up every few years, but it never goes anywhere. I wouldn’t be against the idea of a prohibitive tax on ammunition. It sounds like another approach to the problem, and at this point I’m willing to look at any and all approaches."

Bolstered by Jewell Williams’ support in the House, I called state Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams to ask about the Senate.

"Yeah, I’ve seen that before, but not recently," the other Williams said. "The problem with these ideas, and some of them are good ones, is not getting them introduced, but getting them passed. When you start talking about anything that restricts the totally free access and use of firearms, the gun lobby gets aggressive."

I then asked him about the fact that, outside of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, a gun-control platform isn’t going to get a politician elected in Pennsylvania.

"That’s just the way it is," he conceded. "But if you ask me, the solution to the problem of gun violence isn’t a political solution. It’s a social problem involving economics, and therefore the solution will be a social and economic solution."

Sen. Williams told me that the community already has the means to stop violence, and the solution is painfully simple: We need to recapture the ability to control our teenagers and ourselves. When kids carry guns, and adults look the other way, he said, a violent minority drives the silent majority.

Give them books, give them training and give them jobs, both legislators told me. Then we can get them to put down the guns.

OK, I’ll buy that.

But I still think that a lot fewer bullets would be flying around if they cost 30 or 40 bucks apiece.

Daryl Gale’s weekly radio show, Dialogues, with co-hosts Rotan Lee and Bill Miller, is burning up the airwaves Fridays 7-10 a.m. on WURD (900 AM) in Philadelphia.