Article I, Section 8, Clause 3.
The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;
To borrow money on the credit of the United States;
To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes;
The constitution does not explicitly lay out what and when and how things may be regulated and by whom in easy peasy categories and detailed specifics. There are multiple clauses that form the root of congress’s regulatory powers, and the commerce clause is one of the most important.
But one of the clearest and most direct things to come out of the commerce clause is: when issues of interstate commerce or interaction undermine the individual states’ ability to regulate, enforce regulation, or states rights. It is the federal government’s job to step in and remove those conflicts by issuing regulations that apply across all states.
Fire arms are a classic example of this. As it stands right now states like New York are seeing their ability and right to regulate the sale and possession of fire arms undermined by the policies of neighboring states.
Which part of the constitution explicitly bars the federal government from regulating fire arms?
