A new bill filed in the Kentucky House would make it an express duty of the state government to protect the gun rights of Kentuckians against unconstitutional federal gun laws.
Filed by State Representative Addia Wuchner, House Bill 120 (HB120) declares โany federal acts, laws, orders, rules, or regulations regarding firearms that violate the Constitution of the United Statesโ to be considered null and void in the state.
The bill also calls on the Generalย Assembly toย do the following:
Adopt and enact all measures necessary to prevent enforcement of any federal acts, laws, orders, rules, and regulations regarding firearms, past, present, or future, that violate the true meaning of the Constitution of the United States and the Amendments thereto as expressed by the founders of the United States and the ratifiers of the Constitution of the United States,specifically the Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States which says, โA well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.โ
This legislation serves as the first step in the process of protecting the right to keep and bear arms in the Bluegrass State, and would set the stage for further action. Although HB120 would not implement any specific policy, it would lay the foundation for further bills specifyingย state actions to nullify federal gun laws either outright, or by depriving the feds of state resources via anti-commandeering legislation. After being introduced in the House, the bill was sent to the Judiciary Committee.
There is a second similar bill under consideration in the Kentucky House that also calls on the General Assembly to protect the gun rights of its citizens.
State Representative Diane St. Ongeย filed House Bill 13 (HB13) that features similar language, but one important difference in implementation.
HB13 declares all federal gun control to be a violation of the Second Amendment. SB120 says that the state considers null and void any federal gun control measures that are unconstitutional, but doesn’t define how that’s determined. HB13 is a stand-alone, self-contained bill. It defines all federal gun laws unconstitutional and all void. That sets up a directive to take action to stop those federal acts as a follow up.
HB120 is good as well, but it needs additional action by the the state to take a position on which federal acts are unconstitutional, otherwise it the bill will never have any effect.
HB120 also contains an additional sectionย at the end thatย declares an โemergencyโ due to โimmediate impending actions by the Congress of the United States, the President of the United States, and federal agenciesโย toย place the rights of Kentuckians โin immediate peril.โ
With a recentย NRA report suggesting that President Obama intends to try an โend-run around Congressโ to push additional federal gun control measures, supporters say the Kentucky bill, along with another recently introduced in Texas, are essential.
โThe 2nd Amendment is in danger, the states need to protect it from federal violation,โ said Michael Boldin, executive director of the Tenth Amendment Center. ย โIn 1798, Thomas Jefferson authored a resolution for Kentucky calling on states to stop federal overreach, and itโs pretty hard to argue that the guy who wrote the Declaration of Independence was wrong about how to stop federal power,โ Boldin continued.
The next step would be to pass aย 2nd Amendment Preservation Actย barring state cooperation with enforcement of any federal firearms laws. Since a vast majority of federal enforcement actions require the leadership, help and/or assistance of state or local governments, agents and resources โ widespread refusal to enforce or participate in enforcement will severely cripple federal efforts.
Judge Andrew Napolitano confirmed this by saying that such noncompliance over an entire state would make federal gun laws โnearly impossible to enforce.โ
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