BOISE - Idaho has joined a federal court case in Montana arguing that locally made and used guns should be exempt from all federal laws, including registration requirements.

It’s a follow-up to the “Idaho Firearms Freedom Act” that state lawmakers enacted this year at the urging of Rep. Dick Harwood, R-St. Maries, who said the bill wasn’t really about gun rights. Instead, Harwood told fellow lawmakers, the measure was intended to spark a federal court case designed to expand states’ rights.

“With few viable avenues to assert their political will, states that have enacted laws similar to Montana’s Firearms Freedom Act are clamoring to restore the proper balance between state and federal government power,” according to a “friend of the court” brief filed this week on behalf of the states of Idaho, Utah, Alabama, South Carolina, South Dakota, West Virginia and Wyoming.

The brief was prepared by Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, who will represent the group of states in the case; Idaho and the others signed on to his brief.

Continue reading ...