Justice Department Sues Missouri Over Contentious Gun-Rights Law
The DOJ argues that the law violates the supremacy clause of the Constitution prohibiting states from overriding federal statute, and has already “had a harmful impact on public safety efforts.”
Landwebs
The Justice Department is suing the state of Missouri over the state’s far-reaching gun law, known as the Second Amendment Preservation Act, which discourages local officials from enforcing federal firearms measures by allowing citizens to sue any local police agency for $50,000 for every incident in which they can prove that their right to bear firearms was violated, provided they were not flouting state law, reports The New York Times. The law is among the most severe state gun-rights bills in recent years, although at least eight other states, including West Virginia, have recently passed similar measures.
The DOJ argues that the Missouri law violates the supremacy clause of the Constitution, which prohibits states from overriding federal statute, and has already “had a harmful impact on public safety efforts within the state” by prompting local and state officials to withdraw from state-federal task forces and sever their connections to vital crime and ballistics databases maintained by federal agencies. Republicans suggested the Justice Department’s suit was intended to pre-empt their possible loss in the state Supreme Court, where lawyers had begun wrapping up their closing arguments, and argued that the new law is constitutional and does not prohibit federal agents from operating in Missouri.
