Gun bills advance to House

Plans aim to limit federal regulation

The House Judiciary Committee advanced a trio of measures Tuesday that would limit the ability of state and local police to work with federal authorities and enforce U.S. gun laws.

Each bill considered by the committee — House Bill 1386 and Senate Bills 59 and 298 — passed with opposition from Democrats, who questioned the constitutionality of the measures and its effect on law enforcement agencies.

“How does this bill help you fight crime?” asked Rep. Kenneth Ferguson, D-Pine Bluff.

The bills also have prompted concerns from Gov. Asa Hutchinson and the Arkansas Sheriffs’ Association, neither of which offered testimony on the bills.

The sponsors of the bills, as well as one county sheriff who spoke for one of the measures, said they did not view many federal gun laws as constitutional and argued that they should not be enforced in Arkansas except with the consent of the state Legislature.

HB1386 would not allow state and local officials to enforce federal laws or regulations regarding firearms and ammunition.

SB59 would prevent the federal government from regulating firearms and ammunition made in Arkansas.

SB298 declares two federal laws null and void in Arkansas: the National Firearms Act, which regulates machine guns and sawed-off shotguns, and the Gun Control Act of 1968, which regulates the interstate sales of firearms.

That bill’s sponsor, Sen. Gary Stubblefield, R-Branch, told the committee that the bill “reaffirms” Arkansas’ sovereignty under the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. That amendment states: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

At earlier hearings on the bill, Stubblefield expressed fears that President Joe Biden’s administration was planning for mass confiscation of firearms, telling lawmakers “for years the federal government has been deceiving people into believing there are limits on these rights.”

Biden’s administration has proposed some new restrictions on firearm ownership, such as requiring background checks for private gun sales, but he has not proposed large-scale confiscation of guns.

The Judiciary Committee sent the bills to the House floor, where they could be considered as early as this week.

Hutchinson said in a statement Tuesday that he was reviewing the bills, but declined to comment further.