Senate advances effort to resist Joe Biden’s gun actions

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Alabama lawmakers on Thursday advanced legislation aimed at resisting a half-dozen executive actions by President Joe Biden to combat gun violence.

The Alabama Senate voted 24-5 for legislation that would prohibit state and local officials from participating in the “administration or enforcement of any presidential gun control order.” However, the bill includes an exemption if doing so would jeopardize federal funding.

The measure is part of red-state efforts to seek, both tangible and symbolic, resistance to federal gun control measures. The approval came over the objections of Democrats who derided the measure as unconstitutional and election-year pandering. The bill now moves to the Alabama House of Representatives.

“The Second Amendment says the right to bear arms shall not be infringed upon, and this bill is about safeguarding our God-given rights to protect our families and homes,” Sen. Gerald Allen, a Republican from Tuscaloosa, said in a statement about his bill.

Two Democratic senators sharply criticized the measure.

“This is an election piece, here,” said Senate Minority Leader Bobby Singleton, a Democrat from Greensboro.

Sen. Rodger Smitherman, a Democrat from Birmingham, said the bill, if approved, would almost certainly be challenged in court.

“I’m telling y’all again that this is going to be unconstitutional. You are going to spend all these millions of dollars trying to defend this and we are going to lose and look bad,” Smitherman said.

The president has limited ability to enact gun control measures without congressional approval. Biden last year issued an order that included moves to crack down on “ghost guns,” homemade firearms that lack serial numbers used to trace them and are often purchased without a background check and to tighten regulations on pistol-stabilizing braces.

An original version of the Alabama law would have also applied to federal gun laws. Idaho and Missouri have approved similar measures.

The Justice Department last year warned Missouri officials that the state can’t ignore federal law after the governor signed a bill that banned police from enforcing federal gun rules.

The Alabama legislative action came the same week that lawmakers rejected a measure that would allow people with mental health issues to voluntarily place themselves on a “do not sell” list to temporarily block themselves from buying firearms. The bill failed on a procedural vote required to bring the measure up for debate in the Alabama House of Representatives.

Alabama will also become the latest state to allow people to carry concealed handguns without first undergoing a background check and getting a state permit. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey this month signed legislation ending the requirement for a person to get a concealed carry permit to carry a loaded handgun concealed under their clothes, in a purse or bag, or in a car.

Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.