South Dakota joins challenge of restriction on private gun sales

South Dakota’s Marty Jackley has joined in with 26 other attorneys general in challenging the federal government’s push to restrict gun sales between private citizens.

Jackley announced Wednesday that the state had signed on to a “friend of the court” brief in the upcoming U.S. Supreme Court case of Abramski vs. United States. Bruce Abramski legally purchased a firearm and sold it to his elderly uncle in Pennsylvania in 2009. Federal authorities charged Abramski with lying on a sale form.

The Department of Justice says such sales allow private citizens to act as “straw purchasers” and bypass federal regulations.

Jackley and the other attorneys general say the Department of Justice is side-stepping state laws on firearms sales to restrict purchases despite the lack of a federal statute restricting sales between private citizens.

“South Dakota currently allows private gun sales between its law abiding citizens, and this brief opposes the federal government’s expansion of federal law to prevent these sales and to prosecute lawful gun owners,” Jackley said in a statement. “Law abiding citizens have a fundamental right to bear arms under the Second Amendment and the outcome of this case is crucial to every legal gun owner in South Dakota.”

http://www.argusleader.com/article/2...vate-gun-sales