Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
The GOP insane clown posse had a big day under the big top of the insane asylum that we only grudgingly refer to as the Arizona legislature. Wednesday was "gun day" at the Lege.
"State's rights" Neo-Confederate dead-enders with dreams of "interposition, nullification and secession" got together with the "happiness is a warm gun" worshipers for whom guns are religious idols and holy relics (or more creepily, a psycho-sexual fetish) — they are often one and the same — in the Senate Public Safety Committee for some "I hates the federal guvmint!" bashing good times. A fun time was had by one and all.
Sen. Kelli Ward, R-Lake Havasu City, who apparently is the female reincarnation of Sen. Ron Gould, R-Lake Havasu City, is carrying his gun bills from previous legislatures and is the sponsor of SB 1112, the Senate version of the bill sponsored by Rep. Steve "Secession" Smith in the House, HB 2291.
The measure would make it a felony for any federal
official, agent or employee to enforce "any act, order, law, statute,
rule or regulation'' dealing with personal firearms, accessories like
magazines and ammunition that is owned commercially or privately in
Arizona and remains within its borders. The same prohibition would apply
to guns and accessories manufactured in Arizona. Violators would be guilty of a Class 6 felony.
Here is how Howie Fischer reported the proceedings under the big top in this oddly captioned report. Arizona senate panel discusses how state, federal gun laws would coexist:
Sen. Kelli Ward, R-Lake Havasu City, said SB 1112 is, in a way, a
line in the sand following the Obama administration asking for new laws
and regulations in the wake of the killings at Sandy Hook Elementary
School in Connecticut. Among those proposals are a ban on assault-style
weapons and a limit on the number of rounds that can be in a magazine.
"I am very impassioned about Arizona states' rights and the overreach that I feel that the federal government has put into many aspects of running our
state,'' she told colleagues. "And firearms — personal firearms in
particular — are just one of those ways that they're reaching down into
the state, especially after tragedies have happened.''
* * *
And Sen. Don ["Tequila"] Shooter, R-Yuma, brushed aside concerns that there might be some conflict between state and federal authorities.
"There are a thousand years of tradition that the
county sheriff is the sovereign law enforcement official in any realm,''
he said. And Shooter said that even trumps the authority of an FBI
agent.
"The county sheriff can toss him right out if he wants to,'' he said.
OK, Howie, we have been over this several times. Your stenographic reporting of the crazy things these clowns say is not good enough. Don "Tequila" Shooter is parroting almost word-for-word the "Tenther" language of far-right anti-government extremist groups like former Graham County Sheriff Richard Mack's conspiratorial Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association and the Oath Keepers. Reporters have an obligation to report on the far-right extremists groups who are
behind these bills and on our legislators' relationships to these
far-right extremist groups. The voters have a right to know whether our
legislators are members or supporters of far-right extremist groups that
are on the FBI watch list.
Another section of the legislation, clearly aimed at what is
happening in Washington, declares that any federal law, rule, regulation
or order effective this year or beyond "is unenforceable within the
borders of this state'' if it bans or restrict the ownership of
semiautomatic firearms or any magazine, or requires that any gun or
accessory "be registered in any manner.''
"The federal government has taken liberties that they
are not at liberty to take, especially encroaching on our Second
Amendment rights,'' Ward said. "So I believe Arizona needs to stand up
to that effect.''
And Shooter reacted angrily to Ableser's comment that Arizona is trying to skirt the supremacy of federal laws.
"The states are sovereign,'' he said. "That's why we call it the United States.''
Don "Tequila" Shooter must be reading the Constitution of the Confederate States of America. We have been over this before:
See: Article VI,
Clause 2 of the United States Constitution, known as the Supremacy
Clause: "This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which
shall be made in pursuance thereof; and all treaties made, or which
shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the
supreme law of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound
thereby, anything in the constitution or laws of any state to the
contrary notwithstanding."
See also: The
Fourteenth Amendment, you know, that reassertion of federal supremacy
enacted after a Civil War fought over the theories of "interposition,
nullification and secession," Section 1: "All persons born or
naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction
thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they
reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the
privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any
State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due
process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal
protection of the laws." That would be federal laws.
See also: The Arizona Constitution, Article 2, Section 3: "The Constitution of the United States is the supreme
law of the land."
But wait, this "limited government" teabagger Sen. Ward wants to go all "Big Brother" on you:
Ward's legislation also has a separate section which makes it illegal
for any state "public servant'' to enforce the same kind of federal gun
laws. But there is no penalty for those who choose to ignore the
statute.
That list of public servants, for the moment,
includes judges and jurors. But Ward said she will strip them from the
measure when it goes to the full Senate, saying no one in either group
is actually involved in enforcing gun laws.
But Ward intends to leave in language including state
legislators in that ban, saying that, even without a penalty, that
needs to be included.
"I would hope that we would vote to not uphold
anything that didn't uphold the Second Amendment, as a body, because we
swore an oath on Jan. 14 (the first day of the session) to uphold our
Constitution, both the United States and the Arizona constitutions,''
she said.
Apparently for Sen. Ward, the U.S. Constitution is exclusively limited to the following selective language:
Amendment II. A 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.
This does not include an unabridged right to own any damn firearm you want without any government regulations, lady. Even arch-conservative Justice Antonin Scalia agreed in the majority opinions in District of Columbia v. Heller and McDonald v. Chicago. ("Like most rights, the right secured by the Second Amendment is not unlimited. . . the right was not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose." And, "We also recognize another important limitation on the right to keep and carry arms. Miller said, as we have explained, that the sorts of weapons protected were those “in common use at the time.”)
Oh that's right, you do not believe in judicial review by Article III federal courts because that part of the U.S. Constitution does not exist in your exclusively limited selective language from the Second Amendment.
People this effin' insane have no business serving in government — or owning a gun. I am guessing the real reason these clowns do not want federal gun laws to apply in Arizona is because when the mental health exclusions are tightened up, these clowns are going to wind up on the list of persons not eligible to purchase guns and ammo.
UPDATE: More than 20 GOP-controled state legislatures have introduced similar bills. The Wyoming House approved a nearly identical bill on Thursday and it now goes to the Senate. Arizona's Tea-Publicans will be upset that they will not be "first in the nation" crazy again. Wyoming House Approves Unconstitutional Ban On Non-Existent Gun Laws.