GunsProposed Utah law would bar the feds from regulating guns in the state
Responding to post-Sandy Hook initiatives to tighten gun regulations, lawmakers in twenty-five states are pushing bills which would give their states the sole right to regulate firearms within the state. Utah has now joined this group of states.
A constitutional states-rights battle begins to form // Source: federalna.ba
In what promises to be an intriguing constitutional confrontation, lawmakers in Utah are pushing a bill which says that Utah alone, not the federal government, has the authority to regulate guns in the state.
San Francisco Chroniclenotes that the proposed bill is just one of several firearm bills now being debated in the Utah legislature. Critics of the bill, and some legal analysts, say if the bill passed, it is likely to be found unconstitutional by the courts. The House Committee approved the bill by a 7-2 vote and now the vote goes to the full House for consideration.
The bill states that employees at a federal, state, or local level cannot enforce federal gun laws or regulations in the state of Utah.
Representative Brian Greene (R-Pleasant Grove), who is a co-sponsor of the bill, said he does not believe the law is unconstitutional since the measure is an assertions of state rights and individual liberty.
Similar bills have been introduced in twenty-six states.
According to Greene, Utah and other states are responding to years of encroaching federal regulations. “States are beginning to push back,” Greene told the Chronicle. “There are 26 other states that in this 2013 legislative session have introduced a bill similar to mine.”
Gun rights advocates have been alarmed by post- Sandy Hook Elementary initiatives to tighten gun regulations.
Legal analysts in Utah said that, in the past, measures which made it a state crime to enforce federal laws have been ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court.
The originally language in Greene’s bill said that any federal officer who attempted to take guns away from Utah residents could be arrested by local law enforcement and charged with a felony. The language has since been softened.
Representative Brian King (D-Salt Lake City) said he would vote against the bill because it would be struck down by the courts. He noted that the U.S. Supreme Court has acknowledged that the federal government can regulate gun laws.
