This Wouldn't Be Believable Fiction

So instead, it becomes fact. From the February 25, 2008 Washington Times:

Montana officials are warning that if the Supreme Court rules in the D.C. gun ban case that the right to keep and bear arms protects only state-run militias like the National Guard, then the federal government will have breached Montana's statehood contract.

Nobody is raising flags for the Republic of Montana, but nobody is kidding, either. So far, 39 elected Montana officials have signed a resolution declaring that a court ruling of the Second Amendment is a right of states and not of individuals would violate Montana's compact.

"The U.S. would do well to keep its contractual promise to the states that the Second Amendment secures an individual right now as it did upon execution of the statehood contract," Montana Secretary of State Brad Johnson said in a Feb. 15 letter to The Washington Times.

The resolution also was signed by Rep. Denny Rehberg, Montana's lone Republican congressman, and state Sen. Roy Brown, who is running to unseat Gov. Brian Schweitzer, a Democrat.

The dispute goes back more than a century. Back in 1889, the settlers of the Montana territory struck a deal with the federal government: They agreed to join the union, and the government agreed that individuals had the right to bear arms.

That has worked fine for the past 118 years, but the Supreme Court is expected next month to hear oral argument in District of Columbia v. Heller, the appeal of a federal court decision striking down the District's gun-ownership ban on Second Amendment grounds.

Now, I think this is something of an overreaction--but it does raise an interesting question: if the Supreme Court were to rule that the Second Amendment protects the right of the states to arm and discipline their militias without federal interference (a position that gun control advocates used to argue very seriously), then Montana would have the authority to issue machine guns, grenades, Stingers, etc. to the unorganized militia. Maybe the Court should go ahead and clarify that the Second Amendment protects an individual right, instead!

And I thought Idaho was pro-gun!

Here's the letter (scroll down a little).