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.
Molon Labe!
Read “Lights Out.” Find it by using scroogle. If the power goes, communication goes too.
If CW 2.0 happens, most of the states will be part of the Confederacy.
I never imagined a having Marxist foreigner as POTUS so AFAIC, all bets are off at this point.
I just try to maintain my hope, faith and sanity.
[not necessarily in that order]...;]
The ATF will start killing people ( including sons, wives, and dogs ) for selling shotguns again, after they and the FBI pays someone to saw the barrel off.
:))
I just hope that he goes down- before he takes the country down.
And MD will be under martial law again so *this* time, could y’all from VA try just a *little* harder?....:)
You have mail- enjoy!
I understand they can turn the power out, but seriously, they still need the numbers and they don’t have the numbers. It wouldn’t take long for a very suspicious 50 million or so people who anticipate all this to begin laying some people out. Sure, it won’t be pretty, but our side will hammer them.
Not if he wins.
You’re kidding right? Ann Richards was complicit in that massacre. She allowed our National Guard to train the Feds and allowed them to use our tanks on them.
The problem I see with the democrat’s (obama’s) stance on this is that there are millions of us that are former military. We have already been trained to paranoid and homicidal. Why do they want to mess with us?
See my tag-line.
Some discussions are worth revisiting.
Laws, orders, regulations, etc...
These things only have weight if those they are intended to effect give them weight, otherwise they are just meaningless words written on a piece of paper somewhere...
Your not going to be able to change that law (or any law) in time, therefore you need to convince the folks who the law is designed to influence of the folly of following it.
Honestly folks, in the end, it doesn’t matter which cause is just or unjust... All that really matters is who has enough men with weapons willing to kill people and break things in support of their cause. That is the way it has always been and always will be. So I advise you to get serious about recruiting men with weapons to the cause. No amount of righteous anger is going to stop well armed jack booted thugs from rolling over you. It takes well armed and equipped soldiers to defend against what this illegitimate fedgov can throw at us. This is where the rubber meets the road and this is where the weak of mind and commitment crumble, but if your serious about regaining your freedom you will do what it takes to take it back. otherwise... go home... and hide under your bed...
If the 10th is upheld in support States Rights, any past Federal legislation comes into question. Taxes, gun laws, Veterans Affairs, a slew of things not delegated to the government in the Constitution.
The Feds would be looking at a complete re-delegation of power.
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