In the wake of mass shootings, the locales that fall victim to this violence face immense pressure to pass stricter gun laws.
Even though there’s little evidence that enacting gun control laws does anything to curtail mass shootings, Democratic lawmakers can’t help but insist that new restrictions on firearms are the only way to prevent such incidents.
Missouri, however, is one state that refuses to cave to the pressure following the shooting at the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl victory parade on Feb. 14 that left one person dead and 20 others injured.
As The Kansas City Star reported Thursday, the state has been embroiled in a lengthy legal dispute over its gun laws.
It began in June 2021 when Republican Gov. Mike Parson signed the Second Amendment Preservation Act, which declared as “invalid” all federal laws that infringe on the constitutional right to bear arms.
In February 2022, the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the state, with Attorney General Merrick Garland saying the SAPA “impedes criminal enforcement operations in Missouri.”
In March 2023, U.S. District Judge Brian Wimes, who was appointed by then-President Barack Obama in 2011, ruled the law unconstitutional and blocked the state from any implementation or enforcement of the measure.
Missouri appealed the ruling, and the Department of Justice and the state were scheduled to go to court last month, according to the Star.
Unfortunately, the date came a little over a week after the shooting at the Chiefs’ celebration in Kansas City.
Should more states follow Missouri’s lead?
And yet despite the renewed calls for stricter gun laws that inevitably follow a mass shooting, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey made it clear he is determined to defend the Second Amendment Preservation Act in court.
During oral arguments on Feb. 23, Bailey’s office urged the U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals to uphold the SAPA, the Star reported.
“We will continue to lead the way in defense of the 2A,” the attorney general said in a social media post that day.
“Joe Biden doesn’t get to pick and choose which parts of the Constitution are legitimate,” Bailey said.
T-30 minutes until oral arguments in defense of Missouri’s Second Amendment Preservation Act at the Eighth Circuit
We will continue to lead the way in defense of the 2A.
Joe Biden doesn’t get to pick and choose which parts of the Constitution are legitimate
— Attorney General Andrew Bailey (@AGAndrewBailey) February 23, 2024
It seems that no matter whether Missouri wins or loses this court battle, the state is not going to cave to the gun control lobby.
Missouri is not going to let the spectacle of national fear-mongering persuade it to back down from its defense of the Second Amendment.
Nor will the state let the actions of a few punks invalidate the constitutional rights of all of its law-abiding citizens.
However, despite the efforts of states like Missouri to vigorously defend people’s Second Amendment rights, they remain under attack, especially at the federal level.
Politicians in Washington — especially the Democrats — are doing everything in their power to curtail our rights. In blue states, things are even worse.
In Hawaii, for instance, the state Supreme Court invalidated the individual right to bear arms last month based on a poorly explained “spirit of Aloha,” and Democratic legislators in Maryland are trying to pass a bill that would require every gun owner to pay expensive firearm liability insurance.
More states should follow the example of Missouri and check the anti-gun bureaucrats.
