FAIRBANKS — An Interior lawmaker said he’ll push to curb federal regulation of guns built and sold solely within Alaska, saying his research has failed to convince him Congress can justify regulating, or requiring registration of, firearms built and sold within a single state’s boundaries.

Federal commerce laws regulate firearm producers and dealers, limiting them to license-holders. The proposed Alaska Firearms Freedom Act, pitched by Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Fairbanks, seeks to preclude federal regulation of guns, ammunition, magazines or other accessories made and sold only within Alaska.

Kelly said federal rules should apply to firearms sold across state borders, where the federal government has clear constitutional authority to regulate interstate commerce. He cited, as justification of his plan, the Bill of Rights’ protection of state and individual firearm rights.

“It says, ‘Thank you just the same, but we’ll control the things — powers — left to us as a state or as individual Alaskans,’” Kelly said.

The bill’s presentation during last winter’s legislative retreat coincided with, in Fairbanks and Outside, a wave of anti-federal government public sentiment. Kelly said he finds himself at least partly aligned with that movement and the act, along with a planned “health care freedoms” resolution, aim to reinforce Alaskans’ rights in the face of federal initiatives.

The bill easily passed the state House of Representatives in April after picking up 11 co-sponsors. It now sits before the Senate Judiciary Committee, whose chairman is Anchorage Democrat Sen. Hollis French. French said Tuesday he’ll schedule a committee hearing for the bill this winter, a hearing that likely will come relatively soon if sponsors have an accompanying information packet ready.

The act would allow unlicensed gun suppliers and dealers to make and sell firearms if the products remain in the state, according to Kelly’s explanation.

The guns would need to prominently display the words “made in Alaska.” The state attorney general’s office would defend businesses prosecuted by the federal government for failure to hold a license.

The bill could insert Alaska into a broader national discussion about gun rights. Similar bills have passed in Montana and Tennessee. Fairbanks attorney Lynn Levengood said many gun rights advocates are closely following debate about gun rights following a shift in Congress and the White House to Democratic control.

“It’s a fail-safe position,” Levengood said. “If federal law tries to undo our Second Amendment rights, we’ve got a fail-safe.”

Alan Gottlieb, founder of the Bellevue, Wash.-based Second Amendment Foundation, said he expects similar proposals to emerge in many states next year. Gottlieb said past court rulings could create hurdles as states look to protect intrastate gun trade. But he said if enough states jump on board, the momentum could force Congress to rethink the federal government’s role in firearm regulation.

“The more states that join in, the more ammunition and clout it gives to the argument,” Gottlieb said of firearm freedom laws.

Kelly’s bill is House Bill 186.