Missouri bill aims to block federal law if Biden administration clamps down on guns
It didn’t take long for the 2021 Missouri legislature to take a detour into Sillytown.
This week, the state Senate’s General Laws Committee took testimony on a bill offered by state Sen. Eric Burlison, a Republican from the Springfield suburb of Battlefield. The measure — SB 39, for those keeping score — has been dubbed the Second Amendment Protection Act.
“All federal acts, laws, executive orders, administrative orders, court orders, rules and regulations,” it says, “that infringe on the people’s right to keep and bear arms … shall be invalid in this state, shall not be recognized by this state, shall be specifically rejected by this state, and shall be considered null, void and of no effect in this state.”
The list of federal laws that could be impacted by the law is long: taxation, registration and possession of firearms are included.
This seems highly unconstitutional. If not, Kansas City should immediately pass an ordinance declaring Missouri’s gun laws are “null, void and of no effect in this city,” then enact commonsense regulations of firearms here. Perhaps that would get the General Assembly’s attention.
But no. The U.S. Constitution specifically gives federal laws supremacy over state laws, no matter what the legislature wants to believe.
The bill would also prohibit state or local authorities from enforcing federal gun laws in Missouri. It would likely make joint federal-local efforts similar to Operation LeGend illegal — at a time when gun-related bloodshed has rocked urban communities such as Kansas City, St. Louis and Springfield.
There are other contradictions in SB 39. “The General Assembly of the state of Missouri strongly promotes … the proper enforcement of all state gun laws,” the bill says.
What? How can the state enact gun laws? Gun laws are anti-constitutional. (The bill says that, too.) How can Missouri legislators do what Congress and City Hall cannot?
The answer is easy: reasonable gun restrictions, from Missouri, Kansas City or Washington, are fully constitutional and should be fully enforceable.
“The right secured by the Second Amendment is not unlimited,” Justice Antonin Scalia wrote for a majority Supreme Court opinion on gun rights.
To see the Missouri Senate waste time and energy on an unconstitutional, unnecessary measure like SB 39 is frustrating. It’s doubly concerning when gun violence continues to rock the state, leading to record murders in some cities.
Lawmakers should spend their time discussing reasonable rules that could cut down on that violence, or give cities and counties authority to address their unique challenges. Burlison’s bill does none of that.
Missouri faces enormous problems, including a still-dangerous pandemic, anemic COVID-19 vaccine distribution, crumbling highways, high unemployment and poor health care in rural areas. We urge lawmakers to focus their attention on those concerns, and not unconstitutional bills that won’t solve anything at all.
