Utah Joins State Effort to Limit Fed
This week, the Utah Senate passed SB11, the Utah State-Made Firearms Protection Act, which exempts Utah firearm manufacturers (including Browning, one of the country's largest) from federal firearms statutes for firearms manufactured for sale in Utah. The Bill now proceeds to the House. Along similar lines, SB67 requires the Governor's approval before any federal health insurance legislation can be implemented in Utah. It, too, cleared the state Senate and heads for the House.
While gun rights proponents are understandably ecstatic, SB11 closely follows a similar Montana statute passed last year, whose author says its purpose is to challenge how the federal government views states' rights— not specifically gun rights. Firearms regulations are one logical place to start, since much federal gun regulation relies on the view that if something crosses state lines, it becomes federal purview. This bill states that the federal rules don't apply for firearms that don't cross state lines.
"There are … 13 bills that I know of in our Legislature that address our state's sovereign right to make decisions in our own state, … and to say to the federal government, 'What part of shall not infringe do they not understand?' "
The phrase "shall not infringe" alludes to the 10th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, the last of the Bill of Rights, which states,
"The 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."
Jumping in with Montana and Utah is Wyoming, where the Governor, a Democrat, called for a Constitutional Amendment to limit federal interference in state affairs. His press release said in part,
"We must do what we can to stop this avalanche of federal intrusion.”
According to Wiki, other states, too, have moved to reassert their sovereignty. Alaska, Idaho, North Dakota, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Tennessee all passed resolutions affirming their sovereignty last year, with 13 more considering it so far this year. Others, including California, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, Oregon, and Vermont, defied the fed on medical marijuana. In all, nearly half the states have so far challenged federal powers in one way or another.
Deseret News opposes Utah's poke at the fed, by the way, suggesting that as long as Utah accepts federal money, it ought to play by the fed's rules. This highlights the deep ambivalence in Utah culture toward federal authority, pitting the Utah tradition of respect for authority against the memory of the federal invasion.
I'm not sure I agree with DN, considering that fed money is actually our money. Regardless, the Montana law is already being challenged in Federal court, and Utah's is sure to follow as this showdown develops.
Posted by DJ at 2/4/2010 12:30 PM 
Categories: Guns and Gun Issues,US Politics
Tags: states rights government Utah politics
Categories: Guns and Gun Issues,US Politics
Tags: states rights government Utah politics
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