SC lawmaker looking to make guns made in state exempt from federal law

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Republican Senator Lee Bright of Spartanburg is proposing Montana inspired legislation to exempt weapons made in South Carolina from federal regulations. 

The Firearms Freedom Act (FFA) has been making its way from state-to-state in recent years, according to the FFA website the bill was "Originally introduced and passed in Montana, the FFA declares that any firearms made and retained in-state are beyond the authority of Congress under its constitutional power to regulate commerce among the states."

The legislation, which uses an interpretation of the Tenth Amendment as its legal validity, has been introduced in some way in Tennessee, Utah, Wyoming and South Dakota. Additionally some twenty states have introduced similar legislation.

However, the Montana law that it is based on is being challenged in federal court. After it became law The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms released a statement which read in part, "...because the Act conflicts with Federal firearms laws and regulations, Federal law supersedes the Act, and all provisions of the Gun Control Act and the National Firearms Act, and their corresponding regulations, continue to apply."

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