Sen. Margaret Dayton wants to pick a court fight with the federal government. The Orem Republican has prefiled a bill that would declare that Congress has no authority to regulate guns made in Utah for use in Utah. It is a fight that Utah almost certainly would lose under well-established legal precedents. Besides, there would be little of value gained even if the state won.

So what is the point? There really isn't one, beyond pandering to gun-rights extremists and anti-government fanatics. But in the Utah Legislature, that sometimes is enough.

We hope that is not the case this time.

Dayton's bill, the Utah State-Made Firearms Protection Act, already has won the endorsement of the Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment Interim Committee.

The key paragraph in the Utah bill states: "A personal firearm, a firearm action or receiver, a firearm accessory, or ammunition that is manufactured commercially or privately in the state to be used or sold within the state is not subject to federal law or federal regulation, including registration, under the authority of Congress to regulate interstate commerce."

The bill posits that Congress has exceeded its authority to regulate firearms built and used solely within one state by relying on a clause in the U.S. Constitution that empowers it to regulate commerce between the states. Congress has done this, the bill's supporters say, in violation of the Constitution's Ninth and 10th Amendments, which reserve to the people and the states powers not specifically given to the federal government elsewhere in the Constitution.

Under federal law, gun manufacturers must have a federal license.

The Legislature's own lawyers, in an analysis of the bill, conclude that it is highly likely the bill would be found unconstitutional by the courts. The reason is the Constitution's Supremacy Clause, which places the federal government above the states in the constitutional pecking order, and because of existing judicial interpretations of federal firearms laws as they apply to conduct within a single state.

If federal firearms regulations were strangling Utahns' Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms, Dayton's bill might be worthwhile. But Utah is awash in guns, and several local firms manufacture them. The state is the concealed-carry capital of the U.S.

Dayton is tilting at windmills. Particularly in today's budget crisis, the Legislature should not waste time and money on this quixotic quest.