I don’t like gun laws. I don’t like the existence of any bill that seeks to infringe on our right to keep and bear arms.
But, unfortunately, legislators get elected to do just that. So, they write and introduce bills they hope become honest-to-God laws.
In Virginia, one lawmaker has introduced a bill she thinks will stop precisely that.
Marie March, a far-right Virginia delegate who attended former President Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally, has a new idea, reported The Daily Beast on Thursday: prosecute members of Congress who write gun control laws.
“In a Wednesday email, first reported by Virginia political journalist Brandon Jarvis, March solicited funds from supporters who ‘oppose Joe Biden and his anti-gun schemes,’” reported Kelly Weill. “If re-elected, March wrote, ‘I will lead the effort to outlaw every single Federal Anti-Gun Edict or ‘rule change’ here in the Commonwealth of Virginia, and make it a felony to try to push these anti-gun schemes on law-abiding citizens.’ It’s unclear how such legislation would possibly work, even in the unlikely event that it is enacted. Would U.S. senators who voted for gun laws be extradited to Virginia? March did not return a call or email request for clarification.”
“In her email, March offered a baroque legal theory to support the hypothetical bill,” said the report. “‘You see, James Madison, who wrote the Constitution, and Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the Declaration of Independence both authored another key piece of legislation that passed — the 1798 Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions,’ she wrote. “In these Resolutions Jefferson said States must ‘nullify’ any and all unconstitutional actions by the Federal Government and Madison said it is the ‘duty’ of State Delegates to do so.’”
Well…that’s idiotic.
Look, I get the argument. I think what she’s trying to do, though, is just a special kind of stupid.
No, gun laws are blatantly unconstitutional and I’d love to put an end to lawmakers proposing them. This ain’t it, folks.
First, there’s no way a divided legislature like Virginia’s would ever pass such a law. Further, it’s unlikely that even if it was all GOP supermajority that it would pass. Legislators aren’t exactly inclined to pass laws that restrict their power.
Plus, I don’t even know that you could get it to stick.
For one thing, a legislature that wants to pass gun control only has to repeal this law first, which is unlikely to be that difficult in the first place. There’s no way this would be popular with them.
So, they repeal it and do whatever they want to do in the first place.
And that’s assuming that a court would uphold it. While I’d love to say they would, I’m not willing to bank everything on it.
This bill has no chance in hell of passing, no chance in hell of surviving if it did, and no chance of actually accomplishing anything. It’s kind of a trifecta of nonsense.
What’s more, while March might not be that bright–and based on some of her antics, I don’t think she’s particularly smart–even she can’t be stupid enough to think this will actually pass, which means this is nothing but an antic, an effort to grandstand for the people she considers her base when most would rather see her do something that actually advances the cause.
Gun laws suck, but grandstanding isn’t much better.