00             HOUSE CS FOR SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 6(JUD)                                                            
01 Urging the United States Congress not to relinquish to the office of the President of the                               
02 United States the legislative duty to safeguard our most fundamental right; and urging                                  
03 the President of the United States to refrain from any further efforts to restrict                                      
04 ownership of firearms.                                                                                                  
05 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA:                                                               
06       WHEREAS, on December 14, 2012, a mentally unstable man fatally shot 20 children                               
07 and six adult staff members at Sandy Hook Elementary School in the town of Newtown,                                     
08 Connecticut; and                                                                                                        
09       WHEREAS, on January 10, 2013, Vice-President Joseph R. Biden, Jr., stated that                                  
10 President Barack Obama was exploring the use of executive orders to help prevent mass                                   
11 shootings in America because executive orders do not require Congressional approval; and                                
12       WHEREAS, on January 16, 2013, President Barack Obama issued 23 executive                                        
13 actions, including orders that establish the groundwork for setting up a national registry                              
14 system for gun owners, clarify that the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of                          
15 1996 and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act allow physicians to ask patients                                

01 about personal ownership of guns and report the findings, and create incentives for state and                           
02 federal agencies to share information about gun ownership and persons who may be mentally                               
03 ill; and                                                                                                                
04       WHEREAS, on January 16, 2013, President Barack Obama called on lawmakers to                                     
05 require anyone trying to buy a gun to undergo a criminal background check as a prerequisite,                            
06 and urged the Congress to reinstate the Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use                                     
07 Protection Act, a subtitle of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994,                                
08 and restrict ammunition magazines to not more than 10 rounds; and                                                       
09       WHEREAS the Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States provides,                                 
10 "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the                            
11 people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed"; and                                                              
12       WHEREAS the greatest fear the founders of this nation had was that a strong central                             
13 government with a strong political leader at the center would be established, because they no                           
14 longer wanted to be ruled by kings or czars but by a loose association of states in which the                           
15 power emanated from the states and not from a central government; and                                                   
16       WHEREAS history is replete with examples of rulers and despots who inflicted the                                
17 most abhorrent evils on their subjects after requiring gun registration, followed by gun                                
18 confiscation, leaving the people powerless to defend themselves from tyranny; and                                     
19       WHEREAS James Madison, author of the First through the Tenth Amendments to the                                  
20 Constitution of the United States, collectively known as the Bill of Rights, said that                                  
21 Americans possess the advantage of being armed over the people of most other nations,                                   
22 whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms; and                                                         
23       WHEREAS Noah Webster, a strong advocate of the United States Constitutional                                     
24 Convention of 1787 and publisher of the first American dictionary, wrote, "Before a standing                            
25 army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom of Europe.                              
26 The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole                                 
27 body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any band of regular troops                             
28 that can be, on any pretense, raised in the United States"; and                                                         
29       WHEREAS, by restricting access to or taking away guns, the President of the United                              
30 States is forcing Americans to rely more and more on police forces across the country as the                            
31 only acceptable means of defending themselves and their families, a practical impossibility                             

01 and the very definition of a police state; and                                                                          
02       WHEREAS the office of the President of the United States should not be allowed to                               
03 unilaterally assault the Second Amendment without the full consent of Congress; and                                     
04       WHEREAS ruling against the Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United                                   
05 States is not a presidential prerogative; if allowed to rule against that amendment, the                                
06 President of the United States could turn his attention to the First Amendment to the                                   
07 Constitution of the United States and issue an order prohibiting criticism of the presidency in                         
08 the press; and                                                                                                          
09       WHEREAS the Declaration of Independence states that "all men are created equal,                                 
10 that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are                            
11 Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness," and it is the sacred duty of every citizen of the                         
12 State of Alaska to protect and defend those rights by whatever means necessary; and                                     
13       WHEREAS it is the right of the people to keep and bear arms that protects all other                           
14 rights; and                                                                                                             
15       WHEREAS the Alaska State Legislature recognizes that the solution to violence in                                
16 America is not through more laws, but through a transformational cultural and spiritual                                 
17 change that resists the glorification of violence in our culture, restores our unity and faith as                       
18 expressed in our national motto "In God we trust," promotes healthy families, and uses                                  
19 existing laws to prosecute aggressively people who illegally use firearms to commit assaults                            
20 on our citizenry;                                                                                                       
21       BE IT RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature urges the United States                                        
22 Congress to not relinquish to the office of the President of the United States the legislative                          
23 duty of the United States Congress to safeguard our most fundamental right; and be it                                   
24       FURTHER RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature urges the President of the                                   
25 United States to refrain from any further efforts to restrict firearms ownership.                                       
26       COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the Honorable Barack Obama, President of                             
27 the United States; the Honorable Joseph R. Biden, Jr., Vice-President of the United States and                          
28 President of the U.S. Senate; the Honorable John Boehner, Speaker of the U.S. House of                                  
29 Representatives; the Honorable Harry Reid, Majority Leader of the U.S. Senate; and the                                  
30 Honorable Lisa Murkowski and the Honorable Mark Begich, U.S. Senators, and the                                          
31 Honorable Don Young, U.S. Representative, members of the Alaska delegation in Congress.