Gun freedom suit dismissed

As I expected, a lawsuit by gun rights advocates and states seeking freedom from federal gun laws for manufacture and sale completely within the state was dismissed.

HELENA, Mont. -- A federal judge in Missoula, Mont., has dismissed a lawsuit by gun rights advocates and states seeking freedom from federal gun laws, a move that the advocates promised to appeal.

The decision Wednesday from U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy was expected since his magistrate a month ago recommended tossing out the lawsuit because Congress has the authority to regulate firearms with its constitutional power to regulate interstate commerce.

If this case even reaches the Supreme Court, I predict the court will side with expanded Federal power. See Gonzales v. Raich for a good summary of what passes for "reasoning" about Interstate Commerce on the current Supreme Court. Clarence Thomas, I think, summed the situation up well in his dissent

Respondents Diane Monson and Angel Raich use marijuana that has never been bought or sold, that has never crossed state lines, and that has had no demonstrable effect on the national market for marijuana. If Congress can regulate this under the Commerce Clause, then it can regulate virtually anything–and the Federal Government is no longer one of limited and enumerated powers.

A few paragraphs later, Thomas wrote:

If the Federal Government can regulate growing a half-dozen cannabis plants for personal consumption (not because it is interstate commerce, but because it is inextricably bound up with interstate commerce), then Congress’ Article I powers–as expanded by the Necessary and Proper Clause–have no meaningful limits. Whether Congress aims at the possession of drugs, guns, or any number of other items, it may continue to “appropria[te] state police powers under the guise of regulating commerce.”

Substitute "guns" for "marijuana" and you have exactly why the Federal Government will prevail. The Conservatives love the Drugged War and the Liberals love their War on Guns. Both require expanding the Federal Government beyond its Constitutional limits.

H/T to David Codrea