Sen. Margaret Dayton got her wish. The Legislature has passed a bill that picks a fight with the federal government over gun regulation. If legal precedent is any guide, it's a fight that Utah is virtually certain to lose, at the risk of flushing millions of dollars of legal fees down the drain in the process. Even in the unlikely event that the state were to prevail, the bill would accomplish nothing. For those reasons, Gov. Gary Herbert should veto SB11.

Sen. Dayton, the Orem maven of message, sponsored the bill to proclaim that the federal government has no authority to regulate guns made in Utah for use in Utah. The theory underlying the bill is that Congress has exceeded its constitutional authority to regulate firearms built and used solely within one state. The weakness in that authority, according to the bill's backers, is that Congress relies on a clause in the Constitution that empowers it to regulate commerce between the states. That, according to the theory, violates 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.

Trouble is, the Legislature's own lawyers see the question differently. They warn 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, and because of existing judicial precedent in firearms cases as they apply to conduct within a single state.

Unfortunately, this did not persuade most members of the Legislature, who voted overwhelmingly in both houses to pass the bill. They seem to be itching for a gunfight with the U.S. marshal.

This might make some practical sense if gun rights were threatened in Utah. But they're not. Despite federal licensing requirements for firearms dealers and background checks for most purchases, the gun trade thrives in the Beehive State. Law-abiding people are free to collect private arsenals. Utah is the promised land for people across the U.S. to obtain concealed-carry permits.

Even SB11 would prohibit private ownership of weapons that cannot be carried by one person, automatic weapons, large bore firearms that use smokeless powder and exploding projectiles.

The movement to pass bills like SB11 was born in Montana, where that state's law already is in litigation. Let them carry this fight. Given Utah's current budget crisis, the state can ill afford to squander precious funds to send a message, particularly one as loopy as this.