A Hundred Angry M&M’s

To dumb it all down. The Federal govt. has the authority to regulate inter-state commerce. Makes complete sense. And that is the government’s basis for federal firearms laws, which is what this debate is over. That being said, this debate wojn’t end with gun laws, its just the catalyst event at this point.

The states have the supreme right to regulate all intrastate commerce. What does that mean. Well, Federal law says you can’t own a grenade launcher. The catch is, if the gun and the ammo are all manufactured in Montana, then there is no interstate commerce. Everything took place within Montana, and the Federal govt. thus has no authority to regulate the weapon. If Montana chose to make it legal, then they could, so long as it all remains in Montana. Since Montana passed and signed into law a bill declaring that the federal govt has no authority to enforce firearms laws in Montana if there is no interstate commerce there have been a slew of other states drumming up similiar bills.

Likely, it won’t go too far, as it’ll have to end up in the Supreme court pretty quickly. If the Supreme court overturns the previous intrepretation of the landmark decisons on interstate commerce then the Federal govt. could effectively be castrated to pre-20th century levels. Will it happen? Who knows, but Montana has already passed and signed their bill into law. The battle is brewing.

Utah and Texas are dreaming up their own versions as I write this.

Read it here