Last week, the Wyoming house overwhelmingly passed House Bill 95 (HB95), the Firearms Freedom Act.
The bill states:
“that specified firearms that are manufactured, sold, purchased, possessed and used exclusively within Wyoming shall be exempt from federal regulation, including registration requirements”
In 2009, both Tennessee and Montana passed the Act into state law. Last week, Gov. Gary Herbert signed the Act and Utah became the third state to have passed the law.
NULLIFICATION
The principle behind such legislation is nullification, which has a long history in the American tradition. When a state ‘nullifies’ a federal law, it is proclaiming that the law in question is void and inoperative, or ‘non-effective,’ within the boundaries of that state; or, in other words, not a law as far as the state is concerned. Implied in such legislation is that the state apparatus will enforce the act against all violations – in order to protect the liberty of the state’s citizens.
Implied in any nullification legislation is enforcement of the state law. In the Virginia Resolution of 1798, James Madison wrote of the principle of interposition:
That this Assembly doth explicitly and peremptorily declare, that it views the powers of the federal government, as resulting from the compact, to which the states are parties; as limited by the plain sense and intention of the instrument constituting the compact; as no further valid that they are authorized by the grants enumerated in that compact; and that in case of a deliberate, palpable, and dangerous exercise of other powers, not granted by the said compact, the states who are parties thereto, have the right, and are in duty bound, to interpose for arresting the progress of the evil, and for maintaining within their respective limits, the authorities, rights and liberties appertaining to them.
HB95 includes this principle, and if passed, would impose penalties for violations of the law:
Any official, agent or employee of the United States government who enforces or attempts to enforce any act, order, law, statute, rule or regulation of the United States government upon a personal firearm, a firearm accessory or ammunition that is manufactured commercially or privately in Wyoming and that remains exclusively within the borders of Wyoming shall be guilty of a felony and, upon conviction, shall be subject to imprisonment for not more than two (2) years, a fine of not more than ten thousand dollars ($10,000.00), or both.
All across the country, activists and state-legislators are pressing for similar legislation, to nullify specific federal laws within their states.
A proposed Constitutional Amendment to effectively ban national health care will go to a vote in Arizona in 2010, and the Virginia Senate recently passed a similar bill, which now awaits action from the state house.
Fourteen states now have some form of medical marijuana laws – in direct contravention to federal laws which state that the plant is illegal in all circumstances. And, massive state nullification of the 2005 Real ID Act has rendered the law nearly void.
CLICK HERE to view the Tenth Amendment Center’s printable Firearms Freedom Act Brochure (pdf)
CLICK HERE to view the Tenth Amendment Center’s Firearms Freedom Act Legislative Tracking Page
UPDATE: The Senate has passed the bill, amended, on the 2nd reading. It need just one more vote from the Senate before being sent to the Governor for his signature. More to follow…
Wow the States are finally waking up to what is going on with the Fed’s!! But then someone will bring up Fed law supersedes State law! That can’t be true because the Fed would not exist if it were not for the States! But now the Fed is exceeding its boundary (with excessive presidential orders which are not approved by Congress) which is against the Constitution! All part of agenda 21 (UN crap)
The solution to that would be for the state to nullify the federal income tax, then the feds can withhold as much funding as they want. Would be nice to see a few IRS agents go to jail and be fined for trying to audit someone. At what point would these acts be considered secession? Could get interesting.
What sayist thou now? For one thing, if the federal government did not withold funding to get it's way it would never get it's way. Since a state can lose Fed. funding it has to pick and choose it's battles. It could be argued that imposing a Martin Luther King national holiday has more to do with "United We Stand" and nothing to do with interfering with states rights. 2nd Amendment issues are another matter altogether and not all states will be so quick to sell out their granted rights… freedoms.
This is very interesting, however, I believe you left out a very important piece of information on this, and that is, WHAT is the reaction of the Fed (i.e. BATFE, FBI, DHS, etc) to these laws? When Arizona originally defied the Fed concerning the Martin Luther King national holiday, the Fed threatened to withold Federal Funding for all manner of things..and Arizona eventually succumbed to the pressure. I understand the wished-for autonomy of the various states involved, but these actions skirt the issue of Seceding from The Union, which will eventually come to the forefront. What sayist thou now?
I wanted to make a clarification, the fine was amended during the readings in the house and has been dropped to $2,000.
3rd reading of the bill will take place sometime this afternoon, and we should know if the bill passes the Senate or not.
~Kristy~ Wyoming10A