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.
The FIRST state to secede should be the first domino that will put an end to Federal oppression.
He “kept the country together” by using FORCE against his own citizens.
We were once a VOLUNTARY union of states.
Lincoln ended that annoying little constitutional impediment to absolute federal tyranny.
He is “the new Lincoln”, only much worse.
The seeds planted in 1865 are ready for harvest.
All the states who’ve reaffirmed their “sovereignty” will be eaten first, just for their unmitigated gall of having done so.
And it will continue to.
Wasn’t that later rescinded?
Federal Law does NOT supersede the 2nd Amendment of the Constitution.
"A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."
Obama the Marxist dictator is stupid enough to pick a fight with Montana and Tenn. LOL! Try Arizona next you frickin moron ;-)
And Texas.
All governments, to one degree or another, will seek to accrue power unto itself. As a proud American recently wrote, "The function of government is to govern. "They" will take what "we" relinquish."
Sorry, I meant to go back and add Texas but it was too late.
Make that Texas and Arizona.......then we can REALLY humiliate this Marxist wimp ;-)
Wow... so is the normal approach to the Constitution not to read it "literally"? CBS .... no surprise.
They have guns too and will probably show up with more of them [and guns] than you have.
When the LEO finally went after a local crippled old ex-motorcycle club president, they brought every local LEO, SWAT team and alphabet agency you could imagine.
You’d have thought they were going after a mob headquarters.
All of that just for one old man who was quietly dying alone in a shack and bothering no one....even with “all the guns” he owned.
They ~won’t~ be sending some giggling bimbo ex-cheerleader to politely ask for your weapons.
First of all: neener, neener, neener. States rights. Go ahead, make the same mistake that the British did.
Second: If you don't like it, don't come back to Montana.
(ya rump swabbin illegal sum bitchen done nothin wannabe pissarse poopinhead)
Touche’.
If you haven’t already, read “Lincoln Umasked” and “The Real Lincoln”.
I’d love to see *them* put on school library bookshelves.
Lincoln was just as oily, greedy, power mad and phony as Mombasa.
Well, they are a real big deal when they have a single person or entity to go after. Wow, the big show of force when it’s one person and one small group. They start coming for guns in this country and the response in backlash will be overwhelming for them, they don’t have near the personnel. The first day they show up somewhere and kill somebody, all hell will break loose, and it is they who will be on the receiving end of the hell.
With all my heart, I hope you’re right and that I’m wrong.
I’d gladly be utterly giddy over being incredibly wrong.
IMO, they’ll pick us off, one by one rather than make the mistake of a mass confiscation.
In a country of 3 million, who’d notice 10...or a 1000 daily “roundups”?
We had our monthly meeting tonight in Nashville. This was a topic of discussion... What we as states need to do is to band together - Tennessee, Montana, and all of the other states that have passed these laws, and file suit jointly against the federal government. When states file against the fed it goes straight to the US Supreme Court, skipping the district courts. With several states involved, we can get some momentum going on this issue.
Some of us also stated that if BATFE really wants to thumb their nose at our laws, we will thumb off our safeties at them. Molon Labe!!!
Regards,
Raven6
With a site like this and all the other media sites available, do you really think they’ll be able to start ‘picking us off’ in small numbers and it would go unnoticed? I think the first time any of this happens, a bunch of hair-triggers on our side will have the ‘justification’ they are looking for and the s will hit the f. We’ll see.
From my standpoint, I think the system is so broken that this type of confrontation is inevitable and necessary. So what the heck, it is what it is, let’s see how things go.
I’m not getting into the whole CW1 thing again. I think there are noble reasons for secession and wicked ones. I think if anything, the country should learn you never elect someone from Illinois to be president.
Just like you’d never let anyone named Kennedy chauffeur you around.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.