Montana Firearms and the Interstate Commerce Clause

Over at No Left Turns I spotted this interesting post (originally from The Volokh Conspiracy):

Montana's staunchly pro-Second Amendment Governor, Democrat Brian Schweitzer, has signed Montana HB 246, the Montana Firearms Freedom Act. The bill declares that a firearm which is manufactured in Montana, and never leaves the State of Montana, "is not subject to federal law or federal regulation, including registration, under the authority of congress to regulate interstate commerce. It is declared by the legislature that those items have not traveled in interstate commerce."

Will this mean anything? Most likely, no. The courts will probably use their imperial power of royal decree to force this democratically elected representative of the people to follow the liberal line- mostly likely by applying Wickard v. Filburn or some other court case.

Still, it does show that in spite of the DHS believing that those who support federalism are right-wing extremists, the tide may be going back in favor of federalism as people realize again the wisdom of our founding fathers. The Governor of Texas Rick Perry recently said at a Tea Party that federalism needs to be strengthened in this nation, and I agree with him.

This issue isn't so much political as practical: federalism diffuses political power, reducing the chance of tyranny and improving protection of individual rights; federalism lets local governments deal with local problems, not remote bureaucracies; federalism allows more people to get involved in the democractic process- more offices, more levels of government, more people can get involved- so that our country is not run by unelected bureaucrats, and federalism allows for experimentation and innovation in public policy- more units of government can try innovative solutions to societies problems (laboratories of democracy stuff). This is why federalims should be supported.