From state to state, the legal landscape is generally quite uniform, but different laws and attitudes occasionally provoke skirmishes. Maine and New Hampshire, for instance, have a history of border incidents due to different approaches to fireworks and liquor taxes.

But larger political differences, on a national scale, could lead to more troublesome consequences than Maine State Police stakeouts of New Hampshire state liquor stores.

Last month the U.S. Senate came within two votes of  the two-thirds majority needed to pass an legislative amendment allowing gun owners to carry their concealed weapons across state lines ”“ a direct challenge to the right of states to set their own standards for concealed weapons permits.

The  sponsor, Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., argued that anyone with a permit to carry a concealed weapon in his home state should be able to carry  the concealed weapon across state lines ”“ anywhere in the country except where concealed weapons are banned. The amendment was supported by 58  senators, including Sen. Susan Collins and Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine.

The proposal seemed intended as a political rallying point for Second Amendment champions. Most U.S. states that allow concealed weapons already have reciprocity laws. Some states are more restrictive about who should be eligible for a permit, and it should be the right of each state to decide how far it wants to go.

Defending California’s right to be more restrictive than South Dakota, Sen. Diane Feinstein, D-Calif., commented: “Concealed-weapons laws that work in rural states may not be suitable in urban areas. What’s good for Iowa or Alaska may not be good for California or New York.”

Thune’s bill would have required gun owners to observe the laws of the state they were in, but its underlying purpose was to override state authority in pursuit of an unrestricted right-to-bear-arms. The ultimate goal, perhaps, was a court case that could expand the scope of the Second Amendment.

The bill just barely failed. So far, states remain entitled to restrict the carrying  of concealed weapons, but it is likely that states’ rights will remain under fire from those ”“ on the left and the right ”“ hoping to bring a larger ideological agenda before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Gun owners rights are only one potential test case. There are perhaps many others, but the biggest unsettled question concerns marriage: Whether same sex couples, married legally in a state that recognizes such marriages, are due any recognition in states that recognize a marriage only if it unites a man and a woman.

— Questions? Comments? Contact Kristen Schulze Muszynski or Nick Cowenhoven at 282-1535 or kristenm@journaltribune.com or nickc@journaltribune.com.