More gun makers and gun owners ought to be hanging “For Sale” signs on their current properties and getting ready to move West. Why would Auto Ordinance want to stay in the Catskills or Smith & Wesson in the People’s Republic of Massachusetts, when there’s Montana?

Great Falls Tribune:

Montana lawmakers fired another shot in battles for states’ rights as they supported letting some Montana gun owners and dealers skip reporting their transactions to the federal government.

Under House Bill 246, firearms made in Montana and used in Montana would be exempt from federal regulation. The same would be true for firearm accessories and ammunition made and sold in the state.

“What we need here is for Montana to be able to handle Montana’s business and affairs,” Republican Rep. Joel Boniek told fellow lawmakers Saturday. The wilderness guide from Livingston defeated Republican incumbent Bruce Malcolm in last spring’s election.

Boniek’s measure aims to circumvent federal authority over interstate commerce, which is the legal basis for most gun regulation in the United States. The bill potentially could release Montanans from both federal gun registration requirements and dealership licensing rules. Since the state has no background-check laws on its own books, the legislation also could free gun purchasers from that requirement.

“Firearms are inextricably linked to the history and culture of Montana, and I’d like to support that,” Boniek said. “But I want to point out that the issue here is not about firearms. It’s about state rights.”

The House voted 64-36 for the bill on Saturday. If it clears a final vote, the measure will go to the Senate.

House Republicans were joined by 14 Democrats in passing the measure.

Hat tip to Bryan DiSalvatore.

Andrew By God Jackson

Rich Hills at Prawfsblog hears in the House vote rejecting the Wall Street Bailout, echoing down the corridors of time, the ancient American political conflict between the Northeastern monied interests desiring federal control and manipulation of the economy in their service and the libertarianism of Jefferson and Andrew Jackson.

In the wake of the House of Representative’s rejection of Paulson’s bailout measure, I cannot help but think that the spirit of Andrew Jackson lingers among America’s electorate. The rhetoric among members of Congress, op-eds, blogs, all sound suspiciously similar to Jackson’s message accompanying his veto of the renewal of the Bank of the United States’ charter. Henry Paulson seems to be our latter-day Nicholas Biddle. The investment banks now holding mortgage-backed securities play the role of the bank of the United States. One does even need to edit the current attacks on banks, eastern capital, government aid to private corporations to put these contemporary messages into the mouths of Jackson, Amos Kendall, and the other “hard money” Jacksonians who decried the “exclusive privileges” of the “rich and powerful” shareholders of the “monster bank.”

Read the whole thing.