Second Amendment Protection Act Passes Kansas House

Kansas is moving forward in protecting the second amendment and nullifying federal attacks on the right to keep and bear arms in the state.  HB 2199, The Second Amendment Protection Act, passed the Kansas House today with a 94-29 vote.  The bill will now move on to the Senate. 

The purpose of the Second Amendment Protection Act is to guarantee the people of Kansas that their Second Amendment rights will not be curtailed or trampled in any manner by the federal government.  The Second Amendment of the United States Constitution reads, “A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the rights of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” 

This bill states, in part, Any act, law, treaty, order, rule or regulation of the government of the United States which violates the second amendment to the constitution of the United States is null, void and unenforceable in the state of Kansas.

This was a popular bill in the House and was sponsored by 50 representatives. This bill also sends a strong tenth amendment message.  It states, The tenth amendment to the constitution of the United States guarantees to the states and their people all powers not granted to the federal government elsewhere in the constitution and reserves to the state and people of Kansas certain powers as they were understood at the time that Kansas was admitted to statehood in 1861.  The guaranty of those powers is a matter of contract between the state and people of Kansas and the United States as of the time that the compact with the United States was agreed upon and adopted by Kansas in 1859 and the United States in 1861.  

Under House Bill 2199, known as the Second Amendment Protection Act, Kansas-made guns and ammo would be immune from federal laws, and state officials could arrest and prosecute federal agents that try to confiscate Kansas-made weapons.

Rep. John Rubin authored the bill.  He said that the legislation was based on the premise that firearm business activities confined to Kansas don’t constitute interstate commerce and remain outside federal jurisdiction.  Under the law, any gun owned  or built in Kansas, and remaining within its borders, wouldn’t be controlled by “any past, present or future federal law, rule or regulation of any kind.” 

This bill now moves on to the Kansas Senate.  If passed, it is thought to contain the strongest language of all state laws in protecting the Second Amendment.