I grew up with guns. I got a .22 rifle for my ninth birthday that I still have and love. I have put thousands and thousands of rounds through that rifle and used it to kill more than a couple of cute little animals that wound up on a dinner table. I am a member of a “sportsman” group so I can get a discount at the indoor shooting range when it’s too cold to go shoot outside. I have 4 guns in my house right now, and grew up in a house with around a dozen different rifles, shotguns and handguns. I am really looking forward to recently elected Anchorage assemblyman Dick Traini’s big machine gun shootout fundraiser.
Now that I have said all of that it is pretty obvious that I am going to say something against guns, so here it goes…
‘Made in Alaska’ firearms bill would assert state rights
The state Legislature has passed a measure exempting from federal gun regulations firearms, accessories and ammunition made and kept instate. The so-called “Alaska Firearms Freedom Act,” sponsored by Fairbanks Republican Rep. Mike Kelly, passed the Senate Friday. It now goes to the governor. It is another effort to assert state rights over federal regulations. The firearms in question also must have “Made in Alaska” stamped on them.
HB 186 was one of those bills that I heard about before the session started and laughed. I thought it would be like Mike Chenault’s renewed efforts to bring back the death penalty, something to score a few political points that would never even make it out of committee. I didn’t pay any attention to it at all, so I was very surprised when I logged on to the ADN website tonight and saw that it had passed.
The bill basically says that any firearms, accessories and ammo made in the state of Alaska are not subject to any federal restrictions so long as they are kept in the state and stamped with Made in Alaska. The argument is that the only jurisdiction the feds have over firearms is through the interstate commerce clause of The Constitution. Now that the bill has passed, a company can make and sell any type of firearms in the state of Alaska as long as they will remain in the state.
You need a machine gun but don’t want to go through the hassle of registering it with the government and paying the taxes that are required now if you want to buy one through a licensed dealer? Well you don’t have to worry about that anymore in Alaska. Your friendly neighborhood gunsmith can now build you all sorts of fun new toys that are currently restricted, machine guns, short barreled rifles and shotguns, pen guns, disguised firearms, silencers and last but not least destructive devices, like grenade launchers or rocket launchers.
As much fun as it would probably be to play with a few of those, I’m not sure making them legal is the best idea. Most of them have no practical use for anything but killing people, and there is a small but growing segment of Alaskans who will want them because of it. Every day there are new stories in the national media about militia groups sprouting up around the country preparing to do battle against the federal government when the time comes. A lot of these groups are probably already armed with the weapons that this bill would make legal in Alaska, but the fact that they are currently illegal is a great tool for law enforcement to bring down some of these groups before they have the chance to kill anyone.
In 2002 Norman Olson moved to Alaska from Michigan. Mr. Olson was the founder of the infamous Michigan Militia, the guys who helped train Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols. He was leader of the militia, until he was basically thrown out for being too extreme. So he packed his bags and headed for greener pastures in Nikiski. Over the last year he has taken advantage of anti-government (aka anti-black president) sentiments and started the Alaska Citizens Militia. One of his co-founders in the Alaska militia was Schaeffer Cox, a Fairbanks gun enthusiast/activist who has been arrested twice in March, the first time for beating his wife and the second for a weapons charge after a kind of weird run in with police.
These are the guys who are going to be first in line to buy the newly legal weapons after Sean Parnell signs this bill into law. I’m sure there will be plenty of law abiding citizens who will buy Made in Alaska guns, but they can already buy most of them legally now if they go through the federal process. This law only serves to make it easier for those who currently can’t get through the federal process to own these guns and easier for everyone to stockpile them
Great post! I’ll be checking out those informative links as well… Buuuut, you DO admit that guns are toys.
You know, I agree that these crazies shouldn’t be allowed to own full-auto machine guns, SBRs, disguised fire-arms, and definately not destructive devises (and I’m not talking about Desert Eagles in 50AE).
But….. I don’t agree with how difficult it is for normal Alaskans to get those. I am the owner of half a dozen guns, some of those are “scary black guns” and I like to shoot them at the range. Whenever I go to the range, and hit the bench with my AK or AR, there are a dozen other guys with ARs (and usually one with an AK, where’s the love guys?). Are they all law abiding? Probably. Why else would they pay to use the range? Would they hold up a bank or attack the government if all of a sudden they could put a supressor on that AR they already own? Probably not.
I spoke with a class three dealer last winter about getting a supressor for one of my ARs. He assured me that ‘it seems like a lot, but really, it’s not that bad.’ All I have to do, as a law abiding member of society is this:
Get a back ground check from APD
Have a CCL course or firearms safety course in the last year to get the BG Check from APD
Pay $250 to get the Course
Pay more for the back ground check
Wait 30-90 days for the police chief to ok me
Pay more for a federal back ground check
Wait 90-180 days for the fed to ok me
Fill out the ATF Paper work
Pay the ATF $200 for a “stamp”
Send the money to the website that sells the supressor
Wait 30-180 days for them to ship me the supressor.
Ahhhh… at long last, I’ve got my $600 suppressor. And it only took 150-430 days and $1,100 to get it.
There’s nothing to stop the states from regulating firearms made within the state. Many states already have their own firearms regulations that restrict the manufacture, importation, and distribution of destructive devices, and in some cases fully automatic weapons.
Be careful not to vilify all militias. Not a few state constitutions allow for citizen militias in the event of ‘situations’ which overwhelm state and local law enforcement agencies. Or in situations where the same agencies begin to function in ways that abrogate citizens rights under the state and Federal constitution.
This was basically the function of the first militias in the colonies and without them we would not be here today.
I am NOT advocating for genuinely extremist – whacko groups who’s aim is to overthrow all government and who are willing to target ‘non-combatants’ .
The National Guard is NOT a state militia anymore. It is a reserve component of the United States Armed Forces and the president may federalize it any time he wants – he can even federalize it to put down insurrections in the units own state against the will of the governor who is the Guard’s Commander and Chief when it pleases the president. I could be wrong but I think governors have the right to refuse federalization of their states National Guard forces but I don’t think its ever been done.
If things keep going the way they are – we may have occasion to find out.
In the mean time; asserting States Rights IS a very good thing. It’s time to limit D.C. to governing within constitutional boundaries.