[Vision2020] Idaho Bill Challenges Federal Law
Ron Force
rforce2003 at yahoo.com
Mon Mar 8 12:30:58 PST 2010
After rummaging around the gun sites on the Internet, I think I found the motivations behind the legislation. The sale or manufacture of firearms anywhere in the US requires a Federal Firearms License. The "manufacture" license is different from the "sale" license. The manufacturer pays an excise tax. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms in 2008 issued various rules defining "manufacture" that has impacted what local gunsmiths can do in modifying for resale already existing firearms without obtaining a manufacturers' license.
List here:
http://johnjacobh.wordpress.com/2008/08/17/atf-changes-definition-of-manufacturer/
This has been a big issue for entrepreneurs engaged in small-scale modifications to firearms. One should not assume that they were all engaged in producing weapons that can be easily converted by the user to full-automatic operation (machine guns), but the bill would also nullify the federal requirement to register all machine guns and pay a $10,000 fee per weapon, if you did the modification in Idaho.
Ron Force
Moscow ID USA
________________________________
From: Art Deco <deco at moscow.com>
To: Vision 2020 <vision2020 at moscow.com>
Cc: Tom Trail <Ttrail at house.idaho.gov>
Sent: Mon, March 8, 2010 10:36:17 AM
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Idaho Bill Challenges Federal Law
What if any of the parts/components of firearms/ammo are made
outside of Idaho? Wouldn't then the same interstate laws
apply?
It would be hard to imagine anything of this nature being able
to be made without importing elements needed for manufacture from other
states/nations -- the right kind of metal alloys, for example. What
are they going to do? Mine, extract, smelt, and compound these
alloys wholly within Idaho? Good luck!
W.
----- Original Message -----
>From: Wayne Price
>To: Tom Hansen
>Cc: Moscow Vision 2020
>Sent: Sunday, March 07, 2010 10:38
> AM
>Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Idaho Bill
> Challenges Federal Law
>
>Does anyone know of a firearm made in Idaho?
>I know there is
> a caoonon works up by C d'L, but don't know of any
>rifle/pistol
> makers
>
>
>
>
>
>On Mar 7, 2010, at 6:54 AM, Tom Hansen
> wrote:
>
>> The Idagoons are at it again, V-peeps.
>>
>>
> Courtesy of today's (March 7, 2010) Spokesman-Review.
>>
>>
> ---------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Bill
> challenges federal law
>> Idaho lawmakers hope to force courts to
> restrict commerce clause
>> Betsy Z. Russell, The
> Spokesman-Review
>>
>> BOISE – Idaho lawmakers are gearing up to
> declare guns and
>> ammunition made
>> in the state exempt
> from all federal laws, including registration.
>>
>> “This is
> automatically going to end up in a court case, that was the
>> object of
> this bill,” said the measure’s lead sponsor, Rep. Dick
>>
> Harwood,
>> R-St. Maries. “It’s not to control guns, it’s not to do
> anything,
>> it’s to
>> change. … To tell the state of Idaho
> we can run our own commerce,
>> that’s
>> what this bill is
> about.”
>>
>> The measure is designed to match a “firearms freedom”
> bill already
>> passed
>> in Montana – and already the
> subject of a federal court case – along
>> with
>> pending
> measures in nearly two dozen other states. The idea: To
>> force
> a
>> more narrow reading of the commerce clause of the U.S.
> Constitution
>> by the
>> Supreme Court, by suggesting that
> the use of guns not sold across
>> state
>> lines isn’t
> interstate commerce and therefore can’t be regulated at
>>
> the
>> federal level.
>>
>> Harwood’s bill raised legal
> questions when he unveiled it. At a
>> committee
>> hearing
> last week, another lawmaker distributed an Idaho attorney
>> general’s
> opinion showing the bill was “likely unconstitutional.”
>>
>> “An
> attempt to nullify federal statutes is beyond the power of the
>>
> Idaho
>> Legislature,” the opinion found.
>>
>> But Harwood
> said that’s not the point. “Y’know, the supreme law of the
>> land
> sometimes is maybe not always right,” he said. “There was a
>>
> prohibition law and that was not right. … They ended up turning
>>
> around and
>> saying, well, what we did there was wrong.” He also cited
> slavery,
>> saying,
>> “We all know that’s wrong. That didn’t
> get overturned until the people
>> went back and said this is wrong. You
> have to push the envelope. …
>> That’s
>> what this bill is
> doing.”
>>
>> Harwood brought Deputy Attorney General Brian Kane to
> the House State
>> Affairs Committee to explain the law at a second
> hearing. Kane said
>> the
>> bill likely is unconstitutional
> under current case law, and the
>> attorney
>> general’s
> office is bound by that. But, he said, if the Legislature
>>
> wants
>> to set up a court fight over how the commerce clause should
> be
>> interpreted, that’s up to lawmakers.
>>
>> “That’s not a
> legal question to answer; that is a policy question
>> for
> this
>> Legislature,” Kane said. The bill, he said, does raise issues
> that
>> “most
>> likely will need to be resolved by a court
> of competent jurisdiction.”
>>
>> Rep. Phil Hart, R-Athol, said, “We
> want to take this to court, we
>> want to
>> create a
> controversy, and that’s where we’re headed with this. And
>>
> Idaho
>> will be part of a grander scheme.” The bill then was approved on
> a
>> voice
>> vote, with just two “no” votes, and sent to the
> full House, which
>> likely
>> will debate it this
> week.
>>
>> Hart said several private legal groups want to take on
> the court
>> fight, so
>> it wouldn’t cost the state
> anything. But Kane said the attorney
>> general’s
>> office
> has a constitutional obligation to defend state laws, so if
>> the
> law
>> passes, it’ll defend it.
>>
>>
> -----------
>>
>> House Bill 589
>> (PDF format, 52
> kilobytes)
>>
>> http://www.MoscowCares.com/Idaho/2010/HB589_IdahoFirearms.pdf
>>
>>
> ---------------------------------------------------
>>
>> So . .
> .
>>
>> If a firearm is manufactured and sold in the state of Idaho,
> and
>> taken to
>> some out-of-state locale where it is used
> in a series of robberies and
>> murders, there is no way of tracking
> ownership of this weapon.
>>
>> All this while the Aryan Nations
> racist pigs are making their
>> reappearance
>> in the inland
> northwest.
>>
>> Heck! I don't know about you, but I feel a
> whole lot safer.
>>
>> Seeya round town, Moscow.
>>
>> Tom
> Hansen
>> Moscow, Idaho
>>
>> "The Pessimist complains about
> the wind, the Optimist expects it to
>> change
>> and the
> Realist adjusts his sails."
>>
>> - Unknown
>>
>>
>>
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