00                  SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION NO. 13                                                                   
01 Urging the governor to direct the attorney general to file an amicus curiae brief with the                              
02 United States Supreme Court in the case of Parker v. District of Columbia, supporting                                   
03 the individual right to keep and bear arms under the Second Amendment to the United                                     
04 States Constitution.                                                                                                    
05 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA:                                                               
06       WHEREAS the United States Supreme Court has agreed to rule in the case of Parker                                
07 v. District of Columbia, which challenges the enforcement of local laws that restrict the                               
08 possession of firearms by private individuals; and                                                                      
09       WHEREAS the decision of the United States Supreme Court will have a significant                                 
10 effect on the right to keep and bear arms, a fundamental right of American citizens; and                                
11       WHEREAS the decision of the United States Supreme Court should determine that                                   
12 the right to keep and bear arms is an individual right, and not a collective right that can be                          
13 regulated or restricted by state and local governments; and                                                             
14       WHEREAS the right to keep and bear arms is so dear to the people of Alaska that the                             
15 Constitution of the State of Alaska was amended at the general election in 1994 to specify that                         

01 it is an individual right, and not a collective one; and                                                                
02       WHEREAS the rights protected in the Bill of Rights of the United States Constitution                            
03 are the God-given rights of individual citizens, and their descriptions were derived from the                           
04 English Bill of Rights of 1689 and the Virginia Declaration of Rights; and                                              
05       WHEREAS historical analysis of social structure at the time of the enactment and                                
06 ratification of the Bill of Rights of the United States Constitution clearly shows that our nation                      
07 was a frontier, where firearms were an important part of nearly every household and the use                             
08 of firearms were a part of everyday life, and the colonists who fought the Revolutionary War                            
09 did so with their own guns; and                                                                                         
10       WHEREAS the right of individuals in the United States to keep and bear arms is                                  
11 fundamental to the protection and enjoyment of the remainder of the rights enumerated in the                            
12 Bill of Rights; and                                                                                                     
13       WHEREAS history has shown that in nations where individuals were forced to give                                 
14 up their firearms to government, such as in Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia, the result has                              
15 been repression, tyranny, and genocide; and                                                                             
16       WHEREAS statistics have shown that in local jurisdictions, such as Washington,                                  
17 D.C., where gun ownership has been restricted or prohibited, in violation of the Second                                 
18 Amendment, the goal of reducing violent crimes such as murder has had the opposite effect,                              
19 and violent crime rates are higher than when private individuals could protect themselves with                          
20 personal firearms; and                                                                                                  
21       WHEREAS in Alaska's largest metropolitan community, where the violent crime rate                                
22 continues to rise and the mayor has joined with the mayor of New York City in harassing gun                             
23 dealers, law-abiding residents and visitors who choose to rely on the personal protection of a                          
24 firearm should not be denied access to such protection; and                                                             
25       WHEREAS the safeguard of the Second Amendment to the United States                                              
26 Constitution as an individual right to keep and bear arms is fundamental to the people of                               
27 Alaska;                                                                                                                 
28       BE IT RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature urges Governor Sarah Palin to                                  
29 instruct the attorney general to timely file, on behalf of the State of Alaska and its citizens, an                     
30 amicus curiae or friend of the court brief supporting the plaintiffs in Parker v. District of                           
31 Columbia, or to join with other states' attorneys general in such a brief.                                              

01 COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the Honorable Sarah Palin, Governor of Alaska                              
02 and the Honorable Talis J. Colberg, Alaska Attorney General.