Montana Governor Lies About the Constitution, Vetoes 2nd Amendment Protection Bill
Here's
a surprise for you; some Governors have absolutely zero understanding
of the Constitution. None, whatsoever. Montana Governor Steve Bullock
seems to fit that description quite nicely.
Yesterday, he vetoed Montana House Bill 302 (HB302).
The bill would require the state to refuse to enforce or assist the
enforcement of any federal bans on semiautomatic weapons or large
capacity magazines. The bill states, in part:
A
peace officer, state employee, or employee of any political
subdivision is prohibited from enforcing, assisting in the enforcement
of, or otherwise cooperating in the enforcement of a federal ban on
semiautomatic weapons or large magazines and is also prohibited from
participating in any federal enforcement action implementing a federal
ban on semiautomatic weapons or large magazines.
Here's why Bullock is clueless about the Constitution. In his veto message
he wrote that the bill would put "law enforcement in the position of
violating laws they have sworn to uphold" and "subject our peace
officers to criminal sanctions for upholding the oath we ask that they
take."
Here's a message for you, Steve. You're a liar, and we know it.
There
is absolutely ZERO serious discussion from anyone beyond a 4th grade
education about the fact that the federal government cannot
"commandeer" the states to carry out its laws. None.
Even the Supreme Court has affirmed this multiple times.
In
the 1992 case, New York v. United States, the Supreme Court ruled that
Congress couldn't require states to enact specified waste disposal
regulations.
In
the 1997 case, Printz v. United States, the Supreme Court ruled that
the federal government could not command state law enforcement
authorities to conduct background checks on prospective handgun
purchasers.
In
the 2012 case, National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius,
the Supreme Court ruled that a significant expansion of Medicaid, was
not a valid exercise of Congress's spending power, as it would coerce
states to either accept the expansion or risk losing existing Medicaid
funding.
In
each of these cases, the Supreme Court made is quite clear that their
opinion is that the federal government cannot require the states to
act, or even coerce them to act through a threat to lose funding.
Their opinion is correct. If the feds pass a law, they can sure try
to enforce it if they want. But the states absolutely do NOT have to
help them in any way. This is really basic stuff that no one disagrees with, except people like Steve Bullock when their trying to mislead people.
So
to say that Montana law enforcement would be "violating laws" or
"subject...to criminal sanctions" for not carrying out federal law FOR
the feds is a bald faced lie. And Steve Bullock knows it.
The people of Montana should be disgusted.
On
the right, those who support the right to keep and bear arms know that
no matter what gun laws are ever passed in DC - this year or in the
future - Steve Bullock will require the state of Montana to enforce
them.
On
the left, those who support the medical marijuana program that voters
approved years ago, know that Bullock will continue to be an
embarrassment to progressives, requiring local law enforcement to
continue working with the DEA when they don't even have to.
Now
if Bullock would have skipped this part of the veto message and just
focused on the political statement that he also included, that would be
more...acceptable. Still wrong-headed and dangerous, but not as bad
as his lie that the state needs to carry out and enforce every federal
law. He wants your local law enforcement to take all the risk, and to
bear all the cost, while the feds sit back and do nothing or take the
credit where the local law enforcement carries all the water.
His veto message continues:
Further,
HB 302 is unnecessary. To date, there has been no action in Congress
to enact a ban on semiautomatic weapons. Moreover, recent news reports
have indicated that a majority of Congress does not support such
legislation.
That
may be the case for 2013, and it's certainly decent news for the short
term. But, anyone thinking that this is over with because it won't
pass in 2013 is mistaken. Anyone saying "there's nothing to worry
about" is a liar. If you don't believe me, maybe you'll believe Joe
Biden:
"Let
me say this as clearly as I can: this is just the beginning," he said
just this week. "We believe that weapons of war have no place on our
streets. That's the message that retired admirals and generals have
spoken to us about. The comment one of them used was if you want to
learn how to use a semiautomatic weapon, join the United States
military. But these are weapons of war."
The
attempts to ban semiautomatic weapons and high capacity magazines are
just beginning and making sure that the federal government knows that
they'll get no support enforcing such a ban from the State of Montana,
is a good first step in rendering any such ban ineffective.
As
Judge Andrew Napolitano has said recently, such widespread
noncompliance can make a federal law "nearly impossible to enforce."
Steve
Bullock is a joke, and while we realize that no one is going to vote
this bum out of office anytime soon, the People of Montana can
certainly pressure their state senators and representatives to override
his veto and render worthless his constitutional-idiocy.
For Bullock to say such garbage about Montana being required to enforce federal law, we say "Bollocks!"
ACTION ITEMS for Montana
1. Contact your state representative. Strongly, but respectfully urge him or her to OVERRIDE the Veto on HB302
Contact info here:
2. Contact your state senator. Strongly, but respectfully urge him or her to OVERRIDE the Veto on HB302
Contact info here:
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