Wyoming moves to ban federal gun bans: Could Idaho be next?
The same week our nation’s vice president met with the NRA and Boise hosted its first major gun show since a school shooting in Connecticut, legislators in Wyoming proposed a bill outlawing enforcement of any federal restriction on guns.
“Me personally, I’d like to see it,” Boise Gun Company Nampa store manager Ben Carmen said. “I can’t really speak on behalf of the company.”
Carmen thought preempting a possible Whitehouse ban on assault rifles and high-capacity gun magazines by banning that ban at the local level might appeal in the Gem state as well.
“Yeah,” he said, “I think Idahoans would like to see that happen.”
As for the legality of such a move, one former Idaho attorney general called the Second Amendment the ultimate trump card, but said it wasn’t absolute: The feds may decide to implement reasonable restrictions on the amendment to improve the safety of society and they've done so before.
A court would thus need to decide if the Second Amendment protected a state law allowing banned guns like the one proposed in Wyoming.
“Our country was built off the bill of rights and everything,” Carmen said. “I just don’t think that should be changed, you know?”
The NRA claims to have added more than 100,000 new members in less than three weeks. And indeed, its main number received so many calls Friday we couldn’t get through.
Carmen said he trusted Idaho’s legislators to protect his guns, but admitted many of his customers fear potential impending restrictions.
“People are just worried," he said, "and rightfully so. Who’s to say what they’re going to try to do and what might happen and what might not happen. Nobody really knows. I think it’s the not knowing that worries people more than anything.”










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