School of Law Logo4:52pm 11/21/2024

New Gun Rights Amendment Doesn’t Trump Federal Law, Professor Vars Says

In an essay for Jurist magazine, Professor Fredrick Vars says Alabama’s gun regulations will be mostly unchanged by the state’s new constitutional amendment.

“Most of the important gun laws in Alabama are federal. The state constitution has no effect on federal Law,” he wrote. “The Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution dictates that result. For the same reason, the new Alabama amendment’s assertion that treaties may not henceforth limit the right to bear arms is mistaken. Treaties trump state law, even state constitutional law.”

For more, read “Shooting Blanks: Alabama’s New Gun Rights Amendment.”