Lawmakers revive plan for entrant firearms ban

By Howard Fischer

CAPITOL MEDIA SERVICES

PHOENIX — State lawmakers are trying to resurrect a law designed to keep those in the country illegally from carrying firearms.

The proposal by House Speaker Jim Weiers, R-Phoenix, says all foreigners in this country are forbidden from having guns. But there would be exceptions allowing permanent legal residents and some visitors, such as hunters and target shooters, to be armed.

Shoppers, tourists and other temporary visitors from foreign countries, however, would be prohibited.

That's what lawmakers thought they were enacting four years ago when they adopted a statute that essentially piggy-backed Arizona law onto federal statutes that deal with the rights of non-immigrant foreigners to carry weapons.

But in a unanimous decision last year, the state Court of Appeals pointed out that federal law specifically refers to weapons involved in interstate commerce. What that means, the appellate court said, is people could be convicted of violating state gun laws only if prosecutors could prove the weapon in question was "shipped or transported in interstate commerce."