Tucson to take on state over 2nd Amendment

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TUCSON, Arizona (KOLD News 13) – The state legislature signed HB 2111 and signed Governor Doug Ducey on April 6, 2021, but it has just become an issue for Tucson City Council.

According to the Arizona Senate factsheet, the state and its political divisions prohibit the use of human or financial resources to enforce any US government action, law, contract, ordinance, or regulation that is inconsistent with any Arizona law on the regulation of firearms. “

“HB 2111 is clearly unconstitutional,” said Rep. Domingo DeGrazia, a Tucson Justice Committee member of the House of Representatives who voted against the law. “I voted against the bill in the rules committee because it violates the supremacy clause.”

The Supremacy Clause is that part of the US Constitution that says federal law trumps state law.

“Quite simply, it means the state is annulling federal gun laws in the state of Arizona,” said Steve Kozachik, a ward 6 councilor.

Kozachik asked and received at the study session of the council on Aug.

“I am asking the city council and mayor to pass a resolution saying that we will comply with federal gun laws within the city limits,” he said. “And it doesn’t matter what the state legislators say.”

It appears that the state is targeting the Biden administration, which wants to pass stricter gun laws to ban the AR-15 semi-automatic assault rifle, strengthen background checks, and fill the loophole that allows person-to-person non-background checks to be made.

The bill was passed along the party lines, with every Republican voting in favor.

Kozachik wants to find out whether the bill will hold up constitutionally.

“I’m going to push this as far as I can to get the state legislature to bring a 1487 lawsuit against us,” he said. “So that we can take her to federal court and overturn her bill.”

A 1487 lawsuit is when the state threatens to withhold state revenue unless the community complies with state laws. For Tucson, it could be more than $ 100 million.

But Kozachik is confident that the city has a good case.

“You can’t trump the US Constitution and make the city of Tucson and every community in this state less safe by repealing gun laws,” he said. “It’s just not right.”

But the courts will likely have the final say when it comes to that.

“It would be unprecedented, but what would also be unprecedented is that this is the first time that state lawmakers have passed anything that directly violates the primacy clause of the US Constitution,” he said. “There it goes and there they cross the border.”

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