HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- A group of Alabama senators is sponsoring a bill that would bar the federal government from regulating firearms, ammunition and related accessories made and retained in the state.

The bill is titled the "Alabama Firearms Freedom Act."

Firearms manufactured or sold in the state under act, must include a stamp "Made in Alabama." The measure would apply to "firearms, firearm accessories, and ammunition that are manufactured, pursuant to this act, and retained in this state on or after October 1, 2013," according to the bill.

The bill's sponsors include Alabama Senators Gerald Allen, R-Tuscaloosa; Cam Ward, R-Alabaster; J. T. "Jabo" Waggoner, R-Birmingham; Harri Anne Smith, I-Slocomb and Jerry Fielding, R-Sylacauga, according to the Alabama Legislature's legislative information system website.

Senate Bill 43 argues that federal regulators cannot use the commerce clause as a basis for regulating firearms. The commerce clause - governing interstate commerce -- has been used by Congress to regulate a wide variety of issues through the years, including racial discrimination.

The bill also seeks to bar registration of Alabama-made firearms.

"A personal firearm, a firearm accessory, or ammunition that is manufactured commercially or privately in this state and that remains within the borders of Alabama is not subject to federal law or federal regulation, including registration, under the authority of Congress to regulate interstate commerce, because those items have not traveled in interstate commerce," according to the bill.

The proposed measure comes during a national debate on guns and the Obama Administration's efforts to rein in sale of some firearms in the wake of a December massacre at a Connecticut elementary school.

Firearms sales in Alabama have been brisk since the rekindling of the long debate over proposed regulation of military-style assault weapons.

The bill cites the 10th Amendment, which gives states and their people all powers not granted to the federal government in the U.S. Constitution. The measure argue that understanding goes back to Alabama's entry into the U.S. in 1819.

Alabama's citizens are also given rights not spelled out in the Constitution thorugh the 9th Amendment, the measure argues.

"Congress has not expressly preempted state regulation of intrastate commerce pertaining to the manufacture on an intrastate basis of firearms, firearm accessories, and ammunition," the bill reads.

The bill also argues that firearms accessories - regulated under the commerce clause -- that are imported into Alabama and attached to an Alabama-made firearm does not subject that firearm to federal regulation "because they are attached to or used in conjunction with a firearm manufactured in this state."

The bill includes some exceptions: a firearm that cannot be carried and used by one person; a firearm with a bore diameter greater than one and one-half inches and that uses smokeless powder, not black powder, as a propellant; ammunition with a projectile that explodes using an explosion of chemical energy after the projectile leaves the firearm and a firearm that discharges two or more projectiles with one activation of the trigger or other firing device.