When pro-gun sentiment hits the brick wall of reality, Second Amendment sanctuary laws don’t always pass the test. Some are symbolic from the beginning while others are summarily struck down in court. In Missouri, however, the state’s Second Amendment Preservation Act (SAPA) appears to be having a real effect—at least for now.
The federal Department of Justice filed a complaint recently in a Missouri state circuit court that claims the SAPA is already hindering federal investigations in the state. Local law enforcement divisions have pulled support and assistance from several Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) investigations, and they’ve restricted access to some informational databases.
“[The SAPA] has already interrupted these activities and is expected to continue doing so if allowed to go into effect,” according to the DOJ.
The state legislature passed the SAPA just this year. It prohibits state officials from enforcing federal firearms laws, and outlaws any taxes and fees imposed on guns, ammunition, or firearm accessories “not common to all other goods and services and that might reasonably be expected to create a chilling effect on the purchase or ownership of those items.” Gun registration, tracking, and confiscation schemes also fall under this prohibited category.
SEE ALSO: Feds Look to Squash Missouri’s Second Amendment Sanctuary Law
These restrictions have already prompted local law enforcement agencies to remove nearly a quarter of the ATF’s state and local support, according to the DOJ.
“These reductions in human resources have hindered ATF’s abilities to effectively pursue the enforcement of federal law against criminals, including violent criminals,” the agency claims.
In addition, SAPA has encouraged local state officials to restrict access to or stop participating in federal information gathering. Some state officials have indicated that they will no longer input data into the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN) or do so on only a limited basis.
The DOJ claims that the Columbia Police Department recently shut down an ATF NIBIN machine located on the department’s premises.
SEE ALSO: Idaho Joins Growing List of Second Amendment Sanctuary States Following Biden’s Gun Orders
In addition, the Missouri Information Analysis Center (MIAC) has refused to provide background information on investigative targets, and the Kansas City Police Department has refused to release investigative records or allow ATF access to firearms or ammunition in the department’s custody for purposes of ATF inspection.
State agencies have good reason to avoid helping the ATF. The SAPA levies a $50,000 civil penalty on any law enforcement agency that employs a person who gives “material aid and support” to anyone who tries to enforce a federal gun control law the bill defines as an infringement on the Second Amendment.
Ripley County Sheriff Mike Barton has already been brought to court by a man who claimed his rights were violated under the SAPA. Though the man withdrew the suit because his offenses occurred prior to the SAPA’s passage, it demonstrates that Missouri residents are ready and willing to use the new law.
The SAPA is currently being challenged in court by St. Louis and St. Louis County.
What a beautiful feeling to live again in a Free and Independent State. We love Missouri! (We settled in Ozark Mountains).
My wife and I retired last year and promptly moved out of that rotten rat’s nest called Commiefornia.
(Even though Orange County wasn’t as mad and politically corrupt as the Los Angeles, San Diego or San Francisco areas, it started leaning blue within the past 15-20 years or so).
Thinking about posting a large sign on the entry gate to our very private ‘small’ 40-acre retirement property: DUMBOCRATS FREE ZONE
Finally we know where our taxes go, and what is their purpose. And we love it!
Also enjoying my 400 yard private shooting range located along our private mountain creek. No need to go to the range for plinking though. Just shooting targets from a deck of my house, or balcony of our master bedroom.
It is good feeling to be free!
Long live the state of Missouri!
and murders have doubled…
Think that’s about true for everywhere.
(Sigh) What is NEEDED is a simple bit of legal work that no Senator or Representative would be willing to support: One National Law that makes rat’s nest of State laws obsolete and takes firearm law into Constitutional Federal management.
No, this isn’t a Biden free-pass. This would be a Federal set of descriptions of what various firearms are, based on Military terminology and not some ward-heeler’s cosmetic monster description, with specific descriptions of what is legal and what isn’t.
And since it would be based on the Second Amendment, sitting Congresses would have only “advisory” control of this law.
You have to laugh at the idiots who say “The Second Amendment does not cover assault weapons, etc etc etc…when in fact, at the TIME the Second Amendment was written, the muzzle loading flintlock smooth-bore musket was the leading edge of military weaponry. Seriously, the early United States supported private citizens keeping and using top line Military weaponry for their own usages and interests.
That’s the idea here: we simply adhere to Madison’s idea of what a free citizenry may possess as weaponry. One thing he had going for him was that the Second is logically unassailable, you can’t break it into parts.
So lets be the people the Founders thought we could be…and let the weasel-worders trip over their own tongues. Free people have a right to weapons, Subject peoples do not. It is that simple.
I am proud of my state!
Good for Missouri , F the Fed and the tyranny that they bring with them. I see bluedouche’s he/clown reputation precedes it.
Blue Dog, he/she/it, come and get it, 👊