A Missouri judge ruled Friday that two counties and the city of St. Louis cannot block a Missouri gun law that prohibits law enforcement from enforcing federal gun laws from going into effect.
Cole County Circuit Judge Daniel R. Green refused to issue a preliminary injunction that would have allowed the counties and the city to block enforcement of the law. Green denied the request noting that the plaintiffs referenced two pending cases involving the law, and therefore the constitutionality of the law should be “litigated (if at all) by each plaintiff in each separate case.”
State Attorney General Eric S. Schmitt applauded the ruling in a tweet.
🚨Breaking: Another huge win.
A Missouri judge just ruled in our favor. This time we won defending a new Missouri law protecting our #SecondAmendment rights.
St. Louis City & Co, Jackson Co & the Biden administration sought to strike down #SAPA… they were unsuccessful. #2A
— Eric Schmitt (@Eric_Schmitt) August 27, 2021
Republican Gov. Mike Parson signed the “Second Amendment Preservation Act” in June which nullifies federal gun laws relating to gun registration and the tracking of guns by domestic violence offenders. Local police will be banned from helping federal agents enforce laws that are deemed “invalid” and prohibit the hiring of former federal agents who enforced the laws. Only federal laws that also exist in Missouri state law are excused.
Individuals can sue local police departments for up to $50,000 if they enforce one of the federal laws. Federal agents are still permitted to enforce the laws. (RELATED: ‘It Was About Checking The Government, Not Anti-Blackness’: Black Gun Owners Respond To ACLU’s Claim Second Amendment Is Racist)
The city of St. Louis and the county of St. Louis sued over the law, claiming it violates the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause which rules federal law preempts state law.
The Department of Justice warned Missouri shortly after the law was signed that the state cannot disregard federal gun laws, also citing the Supremacy Clause.
“The public safety of the people of the United States and citizens of Missouri is paramount,” Acting Assistant Attorney General Brian Boynton said in a letter to the state. “We are concerned that, absent clarification, HB 85 threatens to imperil the longstanding and close cooperation between the Federal Government and law enforcement agencies in Missouri that seek to jointly combat violent crime in the state.”
Parson and Schmitt told the Biden Administration they “will fight tooth and nail to defend the right to keep and bear arms protected by the Second Amendment.”
“We will not tolerate any attempt by the federal government to deprive Missourians of this critical right.”