Based defender of inalienable rights and Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey has announced that he intends to file suit against his state’s Jackson County over the legislature’s brazen violation of state gun rights.
Making the Nov. 21 public announcement on X, Bailey informed legislators that he would not tolerate Jackson County’s Ordinance 5865, which prohibits anyone under 21 from possessing firearms or ammunition. In addition, the Attorney General put the county on notice, informing them that shredding sessions are off the table and instructing them explicitly to preserve all material evidence and communications relating to the ordinance’s implementation.
“I will be filing suit against Jackson County for their illegal attempt to violate Missourians’ right to keep and bear arms…They must preserve all communications and evidence in anticipation of litigation,” he said.
Ordinance 5865 was introduced in a knee-jerk reaction to the Chiefs parade shooting in February 2024, which left one person dead and 33 wounded. The alleged gunmen in the shooting are both juveniles, however, creating laws such as this based on age seems somewhat arbitrary and opportunistic as crimes like this occur across a variety of age groups and demographics. Can you imagine a Nashville city ordinance barring trans individuals from gun ownership or possession in the wake of the 2023 Christian school shooting?
The intent to violate state law did not go unchallenged locally. County Executive Frank White vetoed the ordinance after it was passed, calling on the Jackson County legislature to oppose the mandate in a July 29 letter. White, referencing state law 21.750.2 RSMo preventing counties from adopting regulations concerning the sale and ownership of firearms, informed them that the ordinance violates state law and “puts the County in an unnecessary legal battle that will burden taxpayers with the costs of a legal defense that will lose.”
County legislators, however, uninterested in logic and likely accustomed to burdening constituents unnecessarily while pushing the anti-gun agenda, overrode White’s veto on Nov. 18.
“The Attorney General is especially concerned that the Jackson County legislature’s actions have openly flouted Missouri law and are an attempt to undermine State authority…Be advised that any failure to preserve documents of probative value to this case, even if inadvertent, will constitute spoliation of evidence and may result in a finding of contempt from the court or sanctions,” Bailey wrote in his letter to the county.
