A few years back, Missouri did something that few other places would even consider. They hoisted the proverbial middle finger to the feds and declared all federal gun control laws nullified within the state.
Basically.
There’s more to it than that and we’ve covered it extensively in the past, so I’m not going to rehash everything. If you follow Second Amendment news here at Bearing Arms–and really, why wouldn’t you?–then you’re already familiar with it.
Unfortunately, it’s also no longer a thing.
A Missouri law that declares certain federal gun restrictions invalid is unconstitutional, a U.S. appeals court ruled Monday – the second time a federal court has struck down the sweeping state measure.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals in a written opinion found that the law – the Second Amendment Preservation Act, or SAPA – purported to invalidate federal law in violation of the U.S. Constitution’s supremacy clause, which ensures federal law trumps state law.
The ruling is a blow to Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey and other Missouri Republicans who have defended the law since the Gov. Mike Parson signed it into law in 2021. Bailey, who will appear on the November ballot and has positioned himself as a staunch supporter of the Second Amendment, could ask the full appeals court to hear the case or seek review by the U.S. Supreme Court.
The federal gun laws declared invalid by SAPA include statutes covering weapons registration and tracking, and possession of firearms by some domestic violence offenders. State and local police are prohibited under the act from helping federal agents enforce any of the “invalid” laws, or from hiring former federal agents who had enforced them.
Under the law, police departments are subject to $50,000 lawsuits from private citizens who believe their Second Amendment rights were violated. Enforcement of the act has been on pause, however, as a challenge to the measure plays out in court.
“That Missouri may lawfully withhold its assistance from federal law enforcement, however, does not mean that the State may do so by purporting to invalidate federal law,” Chief Judge Steven Colloton, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, wrote in the court’s decision.
The unfortunate reality is that a lot of us saw this coming.
The Supremacy Clause meant that federal law would supersede state law, which means that states can’t invalidate federal gun laws, no matter how idiotic they might be.
However, the judge did argue that Missouri isn’t obligated to assist federal law enforcement in the application of those laws.
The truth is that agencies like the ATF have finite resources. In fact, the ATF only has about 2,500 special agents. In a nation of 330 million people, that’s not all that many. They count on being able to rely on state and local law enforcement to do much of anything.
If a law can prohibit state and local agencies from assisting them, then while the laws may still be in effect, it’ll be incredibly difficult to enforce them.
But that also means people in Missouri can’t just blithely ignore federal statutes without concern of being arrested, either. The laws all still apply, even if they shouldn’t exist in the first place. This is why I felt other states should wait for this to work its way through the courts. It was so they could see how to create a law that met the courts’ rulings.
Prohibiting assistance to the feds appears to be legal, and the truth is that the anti-gun side–the side which tends to favor sanctuary cities for illegal immigrants–really doesn’t have a leg to stand on in opposing this sort of thing.
It’s possible that Missouri will move this up the judicial chain, and I hope they do, if for no other reason than clarification, but for now, guns laws apply in Missouri.
Conduct yourselves accordingly.
