Brian Schweitzer, hitting a populist note just a little too hard:
New gun law aimed at asserting sovereignty
By KAHRIN DEINES - Associated Press - 04/16/09
Gov. Brian Schweitzer has signed into law a bill that aims to exempt Montana-made guns from federal regulation, adding firepower to a battery of legislative efforts to assert states’ rights across the nation.
"It’s a gun bill, but it’s another way of demonstrating the sovereignty of the state of Montana," Democrat Schweitzer said.
Since the law applies only to those guns that are made and kept in Montana, its impact is limited. The state is home to just a handful of specialty gun makers, known for recreating rifles used to settle the West, and most of their customers are out-of-state.
But supporters of the new law hope it triggers a court case testing the legal basis for federal rules governing gun sales.
Schweitzer's argument for the bill?
"It doesn’t cost us any money and I like guns," Schweitzer said after signing the bill.
"I like big guns, I like little guns, I like pistols, I like rifles, and I would like to buy a gun that’s made in Montana," Schweitzer said.
Here's the problem: using Schweitzer's logic you could also strike down any number of other Federal regulations that even he would concede serve an important purpose such as protecting clean air and clean water, maintaining the safety of our air transportation system, or protecting the basic civil rights shared by all Americans -- and forget about anything like national health care reform.
Schweitzer should have had the confidence to say: "You know what, I support gun rights, but I understand that this 'sovereignty' language doesn't have anything to do with guns, and it has everything to do with right-wing fantasies and paranoia about the U.S. government."
States should have the right to make their own gun laws. In fact, states do have the right to make their own gun laws, and they don't need to join a "sovereignty" movement to take advantage of that right.
The sovereignty movement isn't about guns. It's about a right-wing movement that sees the federal government as the enemy, and Brian Schweitzer should know better than to coddle it.