Here comes the crazy: a bill allowing Arizona to ignore federal gun laws
Opinion: The clown car is about to descend on the state Capitol. First out: a bill that would allow Arizona to ignore any federal gun law we don't like.
Fire up the clown cars. Arizona's legislators are headed back to the state Capitol on Monday, bringing with them a odd assortment of kooky ideas.
There's a bill that would bar the state from requiring school kids to be vaccinated against disease and another that would regulate pronouns used by teachers.
But my favorite cup o' crazy thus far is a proposal that would transform Arizona into a sanctuary state … for guns, that is.
House Bill 2093 declares that the sovereign state of Arizona will ignore any federal gun law it doesn't like.
Specifically, any "act, law, treaty, order, rule or regulation of the United States government that violates Amendment II of the Constitution of the United States is null, void and unenforceable in this state."
Who decides what's unconstitutional?
Rep. Leo Biasiucci, R-Lake Havasu City, said the bill is aimed at preserving Arizonans' rights.
"We continue to see a steady and deliberate push by some on the national level to place more and more restrictions on law-abiding gun owners," he told me. "Should the federal government take action at some point to infringe on our Second Amendment rights, I want Arizona to send the message that such laws will not apply here in Arizona."
He didn't explain exactly who in Arizona would decide what is constitutional and thus send that message.
In the United States of America, it's always been the court system that is the arbiter of what is lawful and what is not, with U.S. Supreme Court getting the final word.
In Arizona, it would be … who? … the Legislature?
The NRA?
That poor legislator who lies awake nights worried about pronouns?
It should surprise no one that the Second Amendment Firearm Freedom Act comes to us from Mohave County, a hotbed of conservatism that gave us Rep. Paul Gosar and state GOP Chairwoman Kelli Ward.
The Mohave County Board of Supervisors in November voted to become Arizona's first Second Amendment sanctuary county, proclaiming that the county won't enforce any gun law the sheriff deems unconstitutional.
Gun laws are changing? Where?
Gun sanctuaries have become all the rage in conservative circles, ever since then-Democratic presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke went on a tirade last fall, vowing to seize everybody's AK-47s and AR-15's – and possibly their flamethrowers, canons and howitzers, as well.
"Things are happening at warp speed and happening incrementally," board Chairwoman Hildy Angius said at the time, in proposing the sanctuary county resolution. "You'll look around and say, 'What happened to my country? What happened to my rights?' I refuse to let that happen here without a fight."
Did I miss the part where changes to gun laws in this country are happening at warp speed? Perhaps it was after a classroom full of first graders were wiped out? Or a field full of concert goers? Or a theater full of batman fans or a Wal-Mart full of Latino shoppers?
Well then, let's say that pigs really do fly and sanity does at long last descend upon Washington in a way Rep. Biasiucci doesn't approve.
If Congress passes a law, it doesn't count?
Let's say Congress passes a red-flag law to try to keep guns out of the hands of the mentally ill.
Or our leaders at long last require anyone who wants to buy a gun to first undergo a background check.
Or they ban the sale of large-capacity magazines in a long-overdue effort to at least slow large-capacity carnage.
Under Biasiucci's bill, any such federal law or order would have to be run by some locally approved keeper of the constitution and if said keeper deems it unconstitutional, then ...
... it doesn't count in Arizona?
And if any city defies that state law by actually obeying a federal mandate or cooperating with the ATF or any other federal authorities, then the wrath of the Legislature would rain down upon them?
Biasiucci likens it to the state law allowing medical marijuana.
"Marijuana (recreational or medical) is still illegal at the federal level, but we as a state voted to legalize medical marijuana. So, if the Federal Government decides to outlaw all handguns at some point, this bill tells the Federal Government that under the 2nd Amendment and the Arizona Constitution, we will not comply or prosecute anybody in our state for owning a handgun.
Medical marijuana was an initiative approved by the voters. This bill doesn't require a vote of the people to outlaw duly-passed gun laws Biasiucci doesn't like.
It also doesn't say what would happen to the unfortunate city that obeys the law of the (rest of the) land. I'm guessing our leaders would strip them of funding.
It's an overreaction to a phantom fear
The whole thing is, of course, a hysterical overreaction to a phantom fear.
No president, no Congress – not even Leo Biasiucci and the Arizona Legislature, should they be so inclined (they aren't) – can take away your Second Amendment right to bear arms.
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The U.S. Supreme Court – assuming we in Arizona are still subject to the rulings of that august body – has ruled that our right to bear arms is protected. But in writing that landmark 2008 decision, the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia noted, "Like most rights, the Second Amendment right is not unlimited."
"It is not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose," he wrote.
Except, apparently, in Arizona, if Rep. Biasiucci has anything to say about it.
"This bill sends a clear message to the federal government that if they try to pass any laws that challenge our 2nd Amendment rights and/or the Arizona Constitution, they will be null and void within the State of Arizona," he said.
Our very own Declaration of Independence … from federal laws we don't like.
Reach Roberts at laurie.roberts@arizonarepublic.com.