Posted on 07/21/2009 8:18:35 PM PDT by FromLori
The Obama administration is raising the stakes in a fight over states' rights and firearm ownership by arguing that new pro-gun laws in Montana and Tennessee are invalid.
In the last few months, a grass-roots, federalist revolt against Washington, D.C. has begun to spread through states that are home to politically active gun owners. Montana and Tennessee have enacted state laws saying that federal rules do not apply to firearms manufactured entirely within the state, and similar bills are pending in Texas, Alaska, Minnesota, and South Carolina.
Yet the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, and Explosives now claims that that not only is such a state law invalid, but "because the act conflicts with federal firearms laws and regulations, federal law supersedes the act."
Tennessee's law already has taken effect. The BATF's letter on July 16 to firearms manufacturers and dealers in the state says "federal law requires a license to engage in the business of manufacturing firearms or ammunition, or to deal in firearms, even if the firearms or ammunition remain within the same state."
A similar letter was sent to manufacturers and dealers in Montana, where the made-in-the-state law takes effect on October 1, 2009. Neither law permits certain large caliber weapons or machine guns, and both would bypass federal regulations including background checks for buyers and record-keeping requirements for sellers.
While this federalism-inspired revolt has coalesced around gun rights, the broader goal is to dust off a section of the Bill of Rights that most Americans probably have paid scant attention to: the Tenth Amendment. It says that "powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."
Read literally, the Tenth Amendment seems to suggest that the federal government's powers are limited only to what it has been "delegated," and the U.S. Supreme Court in 1918 confirmed that the amendment "carefully reserved" some authority "to the states." That view is echoed by statements made at the time the Constitution was adopted; New Hampshire explicitly said that states kept "all powers not expressly and particularly delegated" to the federal government.
More recently, federal courts have interpreted the Tenth Amendment narrowly, in a way that justifies almost any law on grounds that it intends to regulate interstate commerce. In the 2005 case of Gonzales v. Raich, for instance, the Supreme Court ruled that a person growing marijuana for her own medicinal use could have a "substantial effect on interstate commerce."
(In an impassioned dissent at the time, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote: "If Congress can regulate this under the Commerce Clause, then it can regulate virtually anything -- and the federal government is no longer one of limited and enumerated powers.")
Gary Marbut, president of the Montana Shooting Sports Association, said in an interview with CBSNews.com on Monday that he expects to be facing off against the Obama administration in court soon. "We will find the right test cases to get us in court," he said.
Marbut believes that the letters were't that meaningful because they were addressed to gun manufacturers and dealers who already are licensed by the federal government. "Those people already are under the thumb of the Feds," he said. "We've assumed they wouldn't want to put their circumstances at risk in dabbling in the state-made guns business. The people who the letters are addressed to are pretty irrelevant to the whole discussion."
Translation: If you're a gunsmith talented enough to build a made-in-Montana gun under the state's forthcoming law, give Marbut a ring. Just don't be surprised if the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, and Explosives is not entirely pleased.
“Obama will go down in history as the most dangerous President we have ever had.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hahaha!
Yeah...until the next most dangerous president in history tops him.
This is about a lot more than firearms. This is a fundamental assertion on the part of state government of its clearly and specifically delineated Constitutional rights.
I suppose something like it was inevitable - amidst the triumphalism of the liberal left was an orgy of consolidation of federal power, and this is the Constitutional brake on that, too long and too often ignored in favor of the efficiencies of making policy at the federal level. This is yet another reason why the Constitution is a work of genius on the order of a Bach fugue. We don't need guidance on the issue, the Constitution already provides it. All we need is the guts to make it stick.
I doubt anyone can top him. You would have to find the next Jimmy Carter mixed in with an Obama to find someone even worse. Obama tops himself
Excellent - thanks!
are you kidding me? open your eyes and ears and mind a little. It can always be worse. Every time there’s a tough spot, people say it’s never been this bad before. Then someday it gets worse.
Read revelations, darlin. Then you’ll know what’s coming after little bitty nothing obama.
That deserves a thread by itself.
Yep, and states rights lost. Ever since we have not been a voluntary Union of States but rather a coerced union by an overriding central government. Our original form of government died and the extent of Federal coercion on the States has been growing ever since.
Never read Revelations. Will check it out. I guess since it is so bad now with Obama, I always think there is no one that could come along after him and make it worse, but I guess there is always room for more loons to take over this country. Hopefully we can take Obama out of office and put someone in who actually will give a damn about this country and fix the damage Obama has done
So if the National Guard gets one order from the President and a different one from the Governor, who do you think they are going to obey?
So help me God.” The oath may be taken before any officer of the National Guard of the State or Territory, or of Puerto Rico, or the District of Columbia, as the case may be, or before any other person authorized by the law of the jurisdiction concerned to administer oaths of enlistment in the National Guard.
See the list of links to pro-Second-Amendment organizations toward the bottom of the page. You’ll probably see some links to such organizations in your state there.
http://www.freerepublic.com/~squantos/
whaddya think this is??
ENGLAND??
...where the badge wearers don’t wear guns??
This is america, land of the crackhead whores and home of the no-knock search warrant.
“How will they confiscate the guns? They have a badge I have a gun, who will win?”
Outstanding, and the proper mindset for all of us to have.
No argument there, but what if this turns out to be a check on that? That's how big this one could be unless somebody blinks, and I don't get the sense that it will be the states. I'm ashamed to admit that I didn't see this one coming.
And that’s where they ended.
They said he was the “new Lincoln” and he is.
[you may commence whistling Dixie at your leisure]
Okay, list of links to pro-Second-Amendment organizations in many states before you get to the middle of the page—not toward the bottom of the page.
http://www.freerepublic.com/~squantos/
Ok. You actually trust your life and your family’s life to a silly oath that no one cares about anymore?
Ever read the REAL marriage vows? Not these stupid ones that queers and bugshit morons make up for themselves...but the real one that has been used for generations?
Who the hell takes that seriously anymore? Almost no one. So what makes you think anyone gives a dam about a stupid oath they took in the guard?
Gimme a break.
If we survive him.
Another thing that people are NOT thinking about: How take back the education system in order to start teaching American History and American Government correctly. The more distant we become from the Constitution, the closer we are to anarchy. We didn’t get here by accident, but rather, drunkenesses from our own excesses.
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