Senate Bill 23, the “Second Amendment Preservation Act,” returned to the Missouri General Assembly on Monday after being deemed unconstitutional last year.
Proposed by Sen. Rick Brattin, R-Harrisonville, the bill would allow the state to avoid enforcing federal gun regulation.
If enacted, authorities could not legally enforce federal gun regulations if they were incongruent with state law.
Any state or local law enforcement agency found enforcing federal gun policies would be subject to a $50,000 penalty per employee.
A first attempt to impose the restrictions was passed by the Missouri legislature and took effect in August 2021. It similarly limited the federal government’s ability to track and regulate firearms and allowed states to nullify federal policy.
Support for the original law was mixed among conservatives, with many keystone institutions, including the National Rifle Association, refusing to back the bill. Law enforcement officers across the state raised concerns about the limits the bill placed on their ability to counter violent crime and drug trafficking.
O’Fallon Police Chief Philip Dupuis resigned over the bill in June 2021, explaining in a statement that it would prohibit officers from seizing weapons in emergency situations.
Once the law took effect, law enforcement agencies retreated from their federal reporting capacities. The Kansas City Police Department began to limit federal access to their investigative resources. The Columbia Police Department withdrew from a national database cataloging weapons recovered from crime scenes.
In February 2022, the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit alleging that the law obstructed cooperation between federal and state governments in combating crime.
In the aftermath of the shooting at Central Visual and Performing Arts High School in St. Louis in October 2022, an investigation revealed that the parents of the gunman asked law enforcement to remove the firearm that was ultimately used in the shooting from their home.
At the time, the shooter was prohibited from owning a firearm under federal law but could own one under state law. Officers felt they were unable to act due to the law’s restrictions.
Six months after the DOJ’s suit, the U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously upheld a lower court’s ruling of the bill as unconstitutional.
The court cited the Constitution’s supremacy clause, which prioritizes federal law above state law.
Proponents challenge this interruption and argue that firearm regulation is an overstep by the federal government.
Brattin told the Senate Transportation, Infrastructure and Public Safety Committee at Monday’s hearing on the bill that the new version is a “reshuffling” of the bill to put it in accordance with the parameters of the Eighth Court’s ruling. The new version presents updated language in the bill’s statement of purpose and removes explicit references to federal agencies, centering the bill instead on state and local offices.
“This isn’t coming and reinventing the wheel,” Brattin said. “This is just clarifying and making it in line with what the Eighth Courts have done.”
Aaron Dorr, a member of the Missouri Firearms Coalition and staunch advocate of the original law, emphasized that the bill was still necessary under the Trump administration regardless of its pro-gun platform.
Dorr also emphasized that the new version had been updated to reflect the concerns of police.
Lewis County Sheriff David Parrish rebutted Dorr’s claim: “This type of legislation will create major obstacles for our officers and deputies throughout the state.”
Columbia resident Kristin Bowen testified in opposition backed by the Missouri chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America.
She cited Missouri’s ranking as one of the states with the highest rate of firearm-related deaths. She also referenced the growing rate of suicide via firearm and gun-related homicides in the state.
“It’s a priority for me,” said Sen. Travis Fitzwater, a Republican from Holts Summit and chairman of The Committee on Transportation, Infrastructure and Public Safety. “This committee will probably take action on (the bill) quickly.”
The Supreme Court was asked to conduct a procedural review of the 2021 law but declined. Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey has submitted a second request for the bill to be reviewed.
A decision on whether the bill will be reviewed is expected in six to eight weeks.
