00                 CS FOR HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 4(JUD)                                                               
01 Urging the President of the United States to rescind 23 executive orders, executive                                     
02 actions, and executive recommendations, related to regulation of firearms; and urging                                   
03 the United States Congress to refrain from passing legislation that restricts the right of                              
04 individuals to keep and bear arms.                                                                                      
05 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA:                                                               
06       WHEREAS the Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States and art.                                  
07 I, sec. 19, Constitution of the State of Alaska, guarantee the right of individuals to keep and                         
08 bear arms; and                                                                                                          
09       WHEREAS President Barack Obama has issued 23 executive orders, executive                                        
10 actions, and executive recommendations, intended to reduce gun-related violence, and some                               
11 of those orders, actions, or recommendations may limit or restrict the ability of law-abiding                           
12 persons in the state to keep and bear arms as they have the right to do under the Second                                
13 Amendment to the Constitution of the United States; and                                                                 
14       WHEREAS President Barack Obama has asked the United States Congress to pass                                     
15 several gun control laws that, if passed, will restrict the ability of law-abiding people in the                        

01 state to own firearms and firearm accessories; and                                                                      
02       WHEREAS the hearts of all Alaskans go out to the victims and families left behind in                            
03 the wake of gun-related tragedies like those that took place in Newtown, Connecticut, and                               
04 Aurora, Colorado; and                                                                                                   
05       WHEREAS, when the federal government tries to curtail individual rights that are                              
06 guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, Alaskans                                   
07 expect their elected officials to defend those rights; and                                                              
08       WHEREAS Alaskans will not accept a one-size-fits-all approach by the federal                                    
09 government that uses gun-control in a misguided attempt to curb gun-related crime; and                                  
10       WHEREAS new laws banning firearms will only punish law-abiding Alaskans, not                                  
11 individuals guilty of crimes; and                                                                                       
12       WHEREAS banning certain types of firearms and high capacity ammunition                                          
13 magazines will not keep them out of the hands of criminals or mentally ill persons; and                                 
14       WHEREAS, in 2012, the Congressional Research Service reported that "according to                                
15 a 1997 survey of 203,300 state and federal prisoners who had been armed during the                                      
16 commission of the crimes for which they were incarcerated, fewer than 1 in 50, or less than 2                           
17 percent, used, carried, or possessed a semiautomatic assault weapon or machine gun"; and                                
18       WHEREAS a 1997 investigative report to the National Institute of Justice, United                                
19 States Department of Justice, found, regarding the effectiveness of the federal assault                                 
20 weapons ban under the Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act, a subtitle                            
21 of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, that "the evidence is not                                 
22 strong enough for us to conclude that there was any meaningful effect"; and                                             
23       WHEREAS a 2004 investigative report to the National Institute of Justice, United                                
24 States Department of Justice, following up on the 1997 report to the National Institute of                              
25 Justice on the effectiveness of the federal assault weapons ban under the Public Safety and                             
26 Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act, found that, between 1994 and 2003, there had been                             
27 "no discernible reduction in the lethality of and injuriousness of gun violence"; and                                   
28       WHEREAS Alaskans cherish their Second Amendment rights and use firearms                                         
29 responsibly for numerous legitimate purposes, including hunting, target shooting, competitive                           
30 shooting, and personal protection at home and in the backcountry; and                                                   
31       WHEREAS Alaska has one of the highest rates of gun ownership in the nation but                                  

01 one of the lowest rates of gun crimes in the nation; and                                                                
02       WHEREAS firearms are part of the state's culture, heritage, and history and will                                
03 continue to be for future generations of Alaskans; and                                                                  
04       WHEREAS members of the Twenty-Eighth Alaska State Legislature simply believe                                    
05 the best approach to preventing future incidents should be identified at the state level;                               
06       BE IT RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature urges President Barack Obama                                   
07 to rescind the executive orders, executive actions, and executive recommendations related to                            
08 regulation of firearms; and be it                                                                                       
09       FURTHER RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature urges the United States                                      
10 Congress to refrain from passing legislation that restricts the right of individuals, guaranteed                        
11 by the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution, to keep and bear arms.                                       
12       COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the Honorable Barack Obama, President of                             
13 the United States; the Honorable Joseph R. Biden, Jr., Vice-President of the United States and                          
14 President of the U.S. Senate; the Honorable John Boehner, Speaker of the U.S. House of                                  
15 Representatives; the Honorable Harry Reid, Majority Leader of the U.S. Senate; the                                      
16 Honorable Eric H. Holder, Jr., Attorney General of the United States; the Honorable B. Todd                             
17 Jones, acting Director, U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, U.S.                                  
18 Department of Justice; and the Honorable Lisa Murkowski and the Honorable Mark Begich,                                  
19 U.S. Senators, and the Honorable Don Young, U.S. Representative, members of the Alaska                                  
20 delegation in Congress.