HELENA, MONT. (AP) -- The list of states joining the legal battle over federal gun control is growing.
A total of seven states filed "friend of the court" briefs by Monday's deadline to do so. And the Montana attorney general also is seeking to intervene in a lawsuit first filed by gun advocates in U.S. District Court in Missoula.
The legal fight is based on a law first passed in Montana that seeks to exempt guns made and sold within its borders from federal regulation.
Utah, Alabama, Idaho, South Carolina, South Dakota, Wyoming and West Virginia all signed on to the lawsuit. The states argue that the U.S. Constitution gives them the right to control activities inside state borders.
The U.S. Department of Justice has asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit, saying states can't exempt themselves from national gun control laws.
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