Wyoming Lawmakers Try to Head Off Federal Gun Grab

Rather than wait and see what the Obama Administration and a complacent Congress choose to foist on American gun owners, Wyoming legislators are proposing a Firearms Protection Act.

The proposed legislation would protect gun owners from any federal bans on assault weapons or large-capacity magazines by making federal laws against semiautomatic rifles and clips unenforceable within the state.

The proposed legislation would go as far as making any federal agent who tried to enforce a federal anti-gun law within the state subject to a felony. It would also allow the Wyoming Attorney General’s office to defend state residents.

One of the legislation’s sponsors said the law is a message to the Obama Administration. “It says that your one size fits all solution doesn’t comport to what a vast majority of the state believes,” state Sen. Larry Hicks said.

Hicks said his constituents have been worried about an impending federal gun grab but that he’s received even more calls since Vice President Joe Biden admitted the Administration was considering using executive orders to limit gun rights.

What we need is more state leaders willing to stand up to the feds on this issue. The federal government can legally override state laws when they conflict with federal law, even though the federal government lets some cases slide, such as with states that have legalized marijuana.

But if states would band together, they could force the feds to back down.

There is no justification for the current pressure to ban guns and related accessories. Gun and ammo bans wouldn’t have stopped Adam Lanza from shooting up Sandy Hook school, and they wouldn’t have stopped any of the mass shootings in recent memory.

But liberals see the murders of children as a political opening for passing their longtime totalitarian dream of getting rid of guns.

All Americans should oppose the despicable exploitation of dead children as cover to steal our freedoms.

 Tad Cronn is the editor in chief of The Patriots Almanac