A Missouri Republican attempt is underway to restore the “Second Amendment Preservation Act” – despite a federal court ruling an earlier version of the gun law as unconstitutional. The state House has given initial approval to a bill that would ban Missouri law enforcement agencies from enforcing federal gun regulations.
Rep. Bill Hardwick, R-Dixon, is sponsoring House Bill 1175.
“This fix that you had before you is pretty well close the original Second Preservation Act, except instead of delineating certain infringements, it says that our state cops don’t enforce federal law as agents, as commandeered, as subservients of federal agencies, with some exceptions, right? They can always enforce Missouri state law,” said Hardwick.
The state legislature passed the Second Amendment Preservation Act, otherwise known as SAPA, in 2021. The Eight Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis unanimously ruled in 2024 that SAPA violates the U.S. Constitution’s supremacy clause, which says federal law takes precedence over any conflicting state law.
Rep. Lane Roberts, R-Joplin, opposes the bill. He is a former Department of Public Safety Director and Joplin police chief.
“This piece of legislation is not the Second Amendment,” said Roberts. “It’s a piece of legislation that has Second Amendment incorporated by word only. For years, this body has told the world that we support law enforcement…we back the blue. And then we do this.”
Roberts said the legislation creates a new category of lawsuits aimed at law enforcement officers and their agencies.
“It makes our officers second guess everything they do with their federal counterparts,” said Roberts. “It threatens their relationship with their federal counterparts. And it fundamentally vilifies law enforcement by suggesting that we have to tell them that they’re supposed to protect people’s Second Amendment rights, like they don’t know that.”
According to Roberts, law enforcement officers from other states could not serve as an officer in Missouri because it prohibits officers who previously enforced anything that would violate the bill.
“They’ve all done that. They were doing their duty. They were enforcing their law as it existed at the time,” he said. “I’m just not willing to stand quietly by and allow our police officers to become sacrificial lambs. Our cops are the guardians of the Bill of Rights. They are the first line of defense and they take that role seriously.”
Hardwick said he’s not anti-law enforcement.
“I want law enforcement to be resourced, the be supported, to enforce all Missouri laws,” he said. “Is anybody in this room under the impression that a state prosecutor can file a federal charge?”
He said there needs to be boundaries on power.
“There cannot be unlimited police power,” said Hardwick. “There cannot be unlimited federal government power. We have to say that the Constitution constrains that. That does not mean we are in favor of crime. That does not mean we are against law enforcement. That means we are against abuses of power, even against our law enforcement officers.”
Hardwick’s bill would also ban the registering, tracking, and confiscating of guns, something Rep. Michael Burton, D-St. Louis County, is opposed to.
“Statistics of when they banned semi-automatic tactical-style assault rifles, we saw a drop in the number of dead people,” said Burton.
“Just please think for a moment how incredibly absurd that is, that because there’s a different accoutrement on a rifle, it’s suddenly going to cause a different amount of deaths,” said Hardwick.
“Then why don’t we send our military folks into battle with the wooden rifles,” Burton fired back.
One more state House vote of support would send the bill to the Senate for more eyes to look over the legislation.
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