In a chamber dotted with female legislators wearing new camo scarves, the state House on Monday passed a gun measure that is wildly popular among the GOP-controlled Legislature even though it raises serious constitutional issues.
House Speaker Mike Chenault, R-Nikiski, is the prime sponsor of House Bill 69, which passed 31-5 on Monday after a lengthy and impassioned debate.
It declares that guns and ammunition possessed by Alaskans are exempt from federal gun laws. It also subjects federal agents to felony charges if they try to enforce any future federal ban on semi-automatic weapons or ammunition or enforce any new federal requirement for gun registration.
A legal opinion from a legislative lawyer said the measure likely is unconstitutional. When federal and state laws conflict, the U.S. Constitution declares that federal law is supreme, legislative counsel Kathleen Strasbaugh wrote in a Jan. 30 memorandum.
Republicans said they are willing to let the courts sort out the issues. They said that they must stand up for Second Amendment gun rights and won't bow down to the federal government on this. A number said they heard from constituents who back the bill.
You know sometimes living here is like being the only hominid on an island of non-tool using, old world monkeys. Except I would probably expect even the monkeys to realize how stupid a law like this is, and the potential for conflict that it creates.
Number one this is NEVER going to stand up to legal scrutiny, but number two it attempts to pit local law enforcement against Federal agents in some sort of Roman gladiator fight for dominance over gun laws.
Not to mention that it sends a message to every anti-social, barely literate, asshole who came to Alaska to hide in the woods because the voices in their heads told them that the government was beaming messages into their brains from space (And yes we have a lot more of these then you might imagine.) that they don't have to listen to federal laws and that if they happen to come under investigation for a federal crime they can fight back and expect local law enforcement to have their back.
What would happen if the Feds were trying to serve a warrant concerning a weapon that was used in a crime in another state and the accused called the State Troopers to defend him and tell them they have no authority over him in this state?
A scenario very much like that just played out here recently concerning the murder of a teenage barista. And I hate to damage anybody's view of our state but we attract way more than our fair share of serial killers.
When the people who fought so hard to get statehood for Alaska did so, they did so with the understanding that we were then subject to federal laws and guidelines. And they were fine with that because it offered far more positives than negatives in their opinions.
These Republican idiots get into office and immediately seem to forget that the state they represent is one of the united states in the United States of America. They are not politicians in Mexico or Canada, they are politicians in the good old US of A, and it is high time that they acted like it instead of acting like insurgents attempting to overthrow an evil dictator.
You know I think it is well past time for the progressives up here to wrest control of our state from the oil funded conservative morons that are currently in charge. Personally I am tired of this shit.
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