Laurie Roberts

opinion columnist

Attention: Arizona. We are in the throes of a state crisis.

It seems the city of Tucson is taking the law into its own hands -- destroying guns confiscated from drug dealers and gang bangers and murderers and such. Refusing its sworn duty to get those weapons back out there on the streets.

This, of course, is an outrage.

Because … well … it just is.

ALLHANDS:A better way to celebrate the Second Amendment

I know this because Rep. Mark Finchem, R-Oro Valley, was so exercised by Tucson’s nefarious behavior that he filed a complaint last month with Attorney General Mark Brnovich.

Brnovich, in an 11-page opinion issued on Monday, has concluded that Tucson may – may -- be breaking a law passed earlier this year by busy-body lawmakers who believe they are boss of cities.

Given the possibility that Tucson may – may -- be violating the law, Brnovich now must file a special action with the Arizona Supreme Court, which in turn must set aside anything and everything it is working on to consider this pressing emergency.

Tucson's action could cost it millions

People, after all, may kill people, but in Tucson they also kill guns.

And that, in the eyes of Gov. Doug Ducey and the Arizona Legislature, ranks as a five-alarm emergency.

One that could wind up costing Tucson millions of dollars.

Brnovich’s spokeswoman, Mia Garcia, told me the office is awaiting Tucson’s response before taking the city to court.

“If the City of Tucson decides to take corrective action on its own that could moot the special action,” she said. “We are willing to work with them.”

In his complaint, Finchem worries that the city is violating a 2013 law that aims to protect guns. That year, the Republican-controlled Legislature got wind of the fact that Tucson was destroying its forfeited firearms rather than selling them, so our leaders promptly passed a law requiring that they be sold rather than melted down.

Tucson ignored the new law, contending that the disposition of city assets was a local concern and none of the state’s business. Since 2013, the city has destroyed 4,820 guns used in the commission of crimes, according to the Arizona Daily Star.

Ignoring the state: An unpardonable crime

This, of course, could not be allowed to continue, so the Legislature this year passed a law that requires the attorney general to drop everything and quickly investigate any time a legislator complains that a city isn’t following the law.

Like, say, those Tucson gun killers or those rebels in Bisbee who continue their war on plastic grocery bags even though our state leaders have forbidden it.

Brnovich, in his opinion, notes that the Supreme Court has said that charter cities can supercede state law and go their own way on “purely municipal affairs”.

But he notes the state has an interest in preserving the right to bear arms, assuring public safety and ensuring that cities don’t squander assets that could be sold to generate revenue.

“The Office therefore concludes ... that the Ordinance may violate state law,” he says.

Well, call out the Marines. Or more specifically the Arizona Supreme Court. If the city refuses to knuckle under to what its leaders consider an unconstitutional law, the high court will have to drop everything and decide whether Tucson will lose $176 million in state shared revenue for the apparently unpardonable crime of ignoring state leaders.

I begin to see why suddenly we needed to expand the Supreme Court to seven justices.