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Montana politics, elections and legislative news

Proposed Montana Law Would Supersede Federal Gun Regulations

Sen. Cary Smith is the sponsor of SB-99, which would prohibit federal bans on firearms in Montana.
Freddy Monares - UM Legislative News Service
Sen. Cary Smith is the sponsor of SB-99, which would prohibit federal bans on firearms in Montana.

Lawmakers in Helena are considering a bill that would supersede federal law for any future ban onfirearms and magazines. Senate Bill 99 would create the “Montana Federal Firearm and Magazine Ban Enforcement Prohibition Act.” The bill would force local law enforcement agencies in Montana to ignore federal bans on firearms.

Republican Sen. Cary Smith is the sponsor of the bill.

"The jobs that our law enforcement folks are hired to do is not to enforce federal laws, as much as it is to take and protect us and do the will that we give them. We are their employers,” Smith says.

Co-Director of the Montana Human Rights Network Rachel Carroll Rivas opposes the bill.

"It furthers the effort for nullification of our federal laws, putting at odds our state and federal governments," says Carroll Rivas.

This was the Senate Judiciary’s first hearing of the bill.

Freddy Monares is a reporter with the UM Legislative News Service, a partnership of the University of Montana School of Journalism, the Montana Broadcasters Association and the Greater Montana Foundation.

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