Montana zigs while Obama zags: Fed gun laws challenged

How about a little Monday morning irony to start your day? While President Obama is rewriting the constitution for socialists and mass murderers at Gitmo yearning to breathe free, the great state of Montana -- and several other states -- are challenging federal gun laws.

A new Montana gun law puts the state at the forefront of a national bid to restore states' rights by attacking up to a century of federal court decisions on Washington's power.

Two other states - Alaska and Texas - have had favorable votes on laws similar to Montana's, declaring that guns that stay within the state are none of the feds' business. More than a dozen others are considering such laws, and more-general declarations of state sovereignty have been introduced this year in more than 30 legislatures.

The federal courts may not respond well to these laws in the short term, but backers who acknowledge this say that regardless, they intend for the laws to change the political landscape in the long term. They hope these state laws will undercut the legitimacy of contrary federal law - as has happened with medicinal marijuana - and even push federal courts to bend with the popular wind.

"What's going on is that people all over the country have decided, 'Enough is enough,' " said Kevin Gutzman, a professor at Western Connecticut State University and the author of "Who Killed the Constitution?" "This is supposed to be a federal system, but instead Congress seems to think it can legislate anything it wants."

In May, Montana became the first state to approve the Firearms Freedom Act, which declares that guns manufactured and sold in the Big Sky State to buyers who plan to keep the weapons within the state are exempt from federal gun regulations.

According to the act's supporters, if guns bearing a "Made in Montana" stamp remain in Montana, then federal rules such as background checks, registration and dealer licensing no longer apply. But court cases have interpreted the U.S. Constitution's Interstate Commerce Clause as covering anything that might affect interstate commerce - which in practice means just about anything.

So if this law sounds ripe for a court challenge, well, that's the idea, said Gary Marbut, president of the Montana Sports Shooting Association, the state's largest pro-gun group.

"The Interstate Commerce Clause has grown and grown until the government asserts authority over everything under the sun," said Mr. Marbut, who wrote the original firearms legislation. "How much water you have in your toilet. Almost all environmental laws. Maybe one-third of all federal regulations are asserted under the Commerce Clause."

Go Montana! And Alaska and Texas and any other state considering anti-fed gun laws.

What iz it? Plus, How You Can Make A Difference

Was reading stuff this morning online and saw this, which is identified only as a 9mm pistol in a gun shop in Sacramento, Calif. What the heck is it?

It got my attention because it has a thumb safety on the wrong side, so to speak, the right side, which is what us lefty shooters really appreciate.

I downloaded it and opened it up in Photoshop for a closer look but the writing on the slide it too pixelated to read. If anybody knows, speak up.

It was displayed with an interesting column on Townhall.com: College Students Seek to Use Concealed-Carry Permits by William Perry Pendley.

Quote:

One minute, Suzanne was eating lunch with her mother and father. The next, the happy hubbub of the restaurant was silenced when a pickup truck crashed through the brick, mortar, and glass. How could that happen? The driver emerged, but Suzanne noticed he wasn’t dazed or drunk; he was angry and purposeful. Then, she saw the guns. He stepped over the debris and began to shoot patrons. She must be dreaming. Her father leaped to his feet, charged the gunman, was shot, and fell to the floor. When the gunman turned his back to shoot others, she remembered: she had a gun! Where was it? She had to find her gun! Oh no, it was in her car. She crawled, then ran toward a window to escape, to get her gun, and to return to save her mother. Was it only a nightmare?

The scene is the infamous murders in Luby's Cafeteria in Killeen, Texas. Suzanne is Dr. Suzanna Gratia Hupp, a chiropractor who became one of the nation's most effective advocates of concealed-carry laws for civilians after that 1991 incident, leading to a "shall issue" carry law in Texas in 1995 and has since spread to almost all states, with a few exceptions.

Quote:

The massacre that killed Dr. Hupp’s parents was the deadliest shooting rampage in American history, that is, it was until the Virginia Tech Massacre of April 17, 2007, when 32 were killed and 17 wounded. Subsequently, on February 14, 2008, a gunman killed 6 and wounded 18 at Northern Illinois University. Little wonder, therefore, that students on CU’s campuses in Boulder, Denver, and Colorado Springs—who have a license to carry concealed weapons almost anywhere else in Colorado—wish to exercise that right in what, in their view, is one of the most dangerous settings they will encounter: “a gun-free zone.” Students for Concealed Carry on Campus (SCCC), a national advocacy group with over 30,000 members that supports the legalization of concealed carry by licensed individuals on college campuses, agrees. Last month, SCCC, two CU students and a recent CU graduate filed a lawsuit in Colorado state court seeking a ruling that CU’s policy is illegal and unconstitutional!

See what one determined person can do when they set their mind to it?