Federal government, BATFE, congress, president, and even the Supreme Court, you laws and rulings, violate the 9th and 10th amendment of the constitution. So thus unconstitutional and thus unenforceable. So says Alaska. Great news for gun rights and second amendment supporters.
Our legislators have come up with the statutory equivalent of my favorite lines from “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.”
“Badges? We ain’t got no badges. We don’t need no badges! I don’t have to show you any stinkin’ badges!”
In approving Rep. Mike Kelly’s HB 186, the Legislature is officially on record declaring that we don’t need no stinkin’ badges from the Federales to make and sell guns or ammo in Alaska.
Fifty of our 60 lawmakers agree that the U.S. Supreme Court, the Congress and the president have been wrong for a long time about what the 9th and 10th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution mean regarding the powers of the federal government.
With Gov. Sean Parnell’s signature, it will soon be official state policy that in-state gun makers selling guns in Alaska are not subject to federal laws, federal regulations or federal registration, despite what the federal government says.
The message to the future firearms industry in Alaska is to not worry about federal prosecution or the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
The bill is almost the same as a measure approved in Montana and a half-dozen other states. One difference is that Alaska lawmakers did not include the comment by Idaho lawmakers that they “are declaring their intention of Idaho becoming the freest state in the Union.”
Perhaps the biggest difference, however, is that lawmakers in those other states, including Montana, Idaho, Arizona and Utah, placed limits on the size of weapons that are free from federal regulation.
In the other states, people still have to follow federal laws if the guns “cannot be carried and used by one person.”
Under the Alaska measure, however, the guns can be bigger than something one person can carry.
In the other states, the laws say that firearms with a bore diameter of more than 1.5 inches that use smokeless powder as a propellant and those that fire two or more projectiles with one pull of the trigger are not free of federal laws. Again, the Alaska measure has no comparable limits.
It is possible that after the Alaska firearms plan becomes law, the BATF will send a letter to federal firearms licensees similar to that which was sent last year to gun dealers in other states. Those letters said that federal law requires a federal license to manufacture firearms or ammo for sale, even if the products remain in state.
But if the feds come knocking on your door for violations of those firearms laws, don’t worry. The Alaska attorney general will defend you with both guns blazing.
No wait, I take that back.
Hold the celebratory gunfire.
The original version of Kelly’s bill said that the Alaska attorney general will ride to the defense of Alaska firearms makers with a posse of lawyers.
But the new state policy now says that the attorney general’s office “may” come to your defense. And you may find $1 million between the cushions on your couch tonight or you may wake up tomorrow as a member of Mensa.
If lawmakers really believe they are right to encourage people to ignore a federal law, they should not have been so wishy-washy with the pledge for free government legal aid.
