Once again, the Legislature is raising its fist -- this time with a gun in it -- against the United States of America.
The State-Made Firearms Protection Act, sponsored by Sen. Margaret Dayton, would give Utah the sole right to regulate firearms manufactured and sold for in-state use. The idea is to claim the state's rights under the Ninth and 10th Amendments of the U.S. Constitution.
It's part of a national movement. Montana and Tennessee already have passed the so-called Firearms Freedom Act (Montana's is in litigation) and about 25 other states have introduced their versions.
Dayton, an Orem Republican known for her passion for conservative issues, deems her bill a matter of sovereignty and argues that Utah has the right to control commerce within its borders.
On Wednesday, 19 senators agreed with her and sent the bill to the House. Ten voted against it, many of them saying it's merely a "message bill'' that could land the state in a costly legal battle.
Which is where the hammer comes down for me.
Lawmakers are poised to slash the state's budget -- again -- by paring spending on education, physical and mental health care, aid to those in great need and pretty much everything else. The unemployment rate stands at 6.7 percent.
We're in the worst economic shape since the Great Depression, and we worry about the gun trade?
I know, I know. It's all about taking back the freedoms the feds have systematically torn away from all of us in defiance of the Founding Fathers' intent.
Or, in the words of Sen. Mark Madsen, a Lehi Republican, "There's too much talk about cost. What's the cost of fighting tyranny? I support this with all my heart."
It's worth remembering, though, that Utah fought to join the United States for nearly 50 years after the arrival of the Mormon pioneers, only to be rebuffed time and again.
Washington was leery of the LDS Church's political dominance in the Utah Territory and abhorred its practice of polygamy. In 1887, a draft state constitution included a clause prohibiting polygamy, and in 1890, LDS President Wilford Woodruff issued his manifesto on the matter.
Six years later, Utah became the nation's 45th state.
I can't say I'm happy with the state of the nation, what with the economy, the wars, the bank bailouts, the intractable battle over health care (read insurance) reform and so much more that's going wrong these days.
But I don't understand this notion of a tyrannical federal government playing smash-and-grab with our rights, at least not in this go-around. I have to think back a few years for that.
