Missouri’s “Second Amendment Preservation Act” has returned to the state’s general assembly after previously being ruled unconstitutional, a statement so full of irony that it is difficult to type. How could a law intended solely to preserve what is arguably the second most important inalienable right recognized by the Constitution be deemed unconstitutional?
Missouri Senate Bill 23 is back as of January 27, proposed by Republican Senator Rick Brattin. If passed into law, SB 23 would prohibit state and local authorities from enforcing federal gun regulations that violate Missouri law. Agencies found enforcing federal infringements would be subject to a penalty of $50,000 per employee.
The original version was passed by the Missouri legislature and took effect in August 2021, limiting cooperation with the government to track and regulate firearms and allowing Missouri to nullify federal gun policy. While conservative support was strong, organizations like the National Rifle Association refused to back the bill. But let’s be honest. I can’t remember the last time the NRA did anything significant to support the Second Amendment, and the group’s reluctance to support such a bill highlights its priorities.
Like a petulant child stomping his feet over having to follow the rules, O’Fallon Police Chief Philip Dupuis resigned in protest of the bill in 2021, suggesting the law would prohibit officers from seizing weapons during an emergency. It is unlikely, however, that state law would hinder officers from securing weapons in a real emergency, reducing Dupuis’s argument to unqualified hyperbole.
While the original law was in effect, Missouri law enforcement agencies withdrew from federal reporting, including the Kansas City Police Department, which limited federal access to investigative resources. The Columbia Police Department also ceased participation in a national database that catalogues weapons recovered from crime scenes.
The Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Missouri in February 2022, arguing that the law obstructed cooperation between federal and state governments, conveniently ignoring how federal firearms policies infringe upon the Constitutional rights the DOJ is sworn to protect. A lower court ruled the bill unconstitutional, citing the Constitution’s supremacy clause that prioritizes federal law above state law, and ultimately, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously upheld the ruling.
Only abject moral corruption allows lawmakers and the judiciary to lean so heavily on something like the supremacy clause in furtherance of an agenda to violate the Second Amendment, making a selective mockery of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
Brattin says the new bill has taken the Eighth Circuit’s ruling into account and that this version will address previous concerns via updated language in the bill’s statement of purpose, removing references to federal agencies and instead focusing on state and local offices.
“This isn’t coming and reinventing the wheel…This is just clarifying and making it in line with what the Eighth Courts have done,” according to Brattin.
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey has submitted a request to the Supreme Court for a procedural review of the bill, with the decision on whether or not to do so expected in March. A similar request regarding the original 2021 bill was declined.
