Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey sued Jackson County in federal court Friday, saying its ordinance that outlaws young people from buying handguns and assault weapons is unconstitutional.
The ordinance passed in November of last year has two provisions, outlawing minors from buying handguns and barring those from 18 to 20 from possessing semiautomatic assault weapons.
Legislator Manny Abarca sponsored the measure in reaction to the fatal February 2024 shootings at the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl rally. Lisa Lopez-Galvan, 43, was killed and another 22 people were injured. Six young men were charged and another three face federal weapons charges in connection with the shootings.
Abarca called the timing of Bailey's lawsuit ironic given that Galvan's family filed a lawsuit earlier this month against the city, Union Station and others, calling the mass shooting a "preventable calamity."
"This is the attorney general trying to play on the opposite narrative of protecting guns over people," Abarca said. "Youth under 18 should not have the ability to possess a high-powered firearm, and I think many folks agree with me on that."
Bailey said state law "unmistakably" preempts local governments from creating their own firearm regulations.
"Jackson County leaders don't get to nullify the Constitution just because they disagree with it," Bailey said in a news release. "Their actions are a blatant attempt at lawfare to achieve their political agendas."
Bailey said the ordinance already harmed Leonard Wilson Jr., an 18-year-old member of Gun Owners of America who is named in the suit. Wilson can't legally buy a handgun from his uncle in Jackson County nor can he possess an AR-15 here without risking arrest, he said.
"In other words, Jackson County officials have targeted an arbitrary subset of adults — people who can contract, marry, assume debt, and serve in the military — prohibiting them from engaging in conduct that is perfectly legal under federal and state law," the lawsuit says.
Jackson County Executive Frank White Jr., who is engaged in a longstanding public tiff with Abarca, said Bailey's lawsuit was inevitable because Abarca's measure violates state law. White said he warned legislators and then vetoed the measure, but it was overridden.
"And now, just as predicted, Jackson County taxpayers are footing the bill for what is nothing more than a performative political act," White said.
Abarca said he hopes the county's lawyers fight Bailey's lawsuit and if not, he will seek other measures.
"I hope that the county executive believes this is worth fighting for, to save people's lives and protect them from aimless firing of weapons and bullets in our community," Abarca said. "But if not, we'll just write more legislation."
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