Missouri governor to sign bill that seeks to nullify federal gun laws

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson (R) on Thursday announced he will sign legislation to ban state police from enforcing federal gun laws.

Under the “Second Amendment Preservation Act,” federal gun laws that regulate registration for weapons and the tracking and possession of weapons by domestic violence offenders will no longer be enforced, according to the Kansas City Star.

Gun control advocates and Democrats have slammed the bill as a “domestic violence loophole” and dangerous, noting that Missouri faces high rates of gun violence and had the nation’s third-highest per-capita rate of gun deaths in 2020, the news outlet reported.

While federal law bans those convicted of domestic violence misdemeanors from possessing a firearm, Missouri passed a measure in 2016 that allowed for people to carry a concealed firearm, relieving state sheriffs from conducting background checks.

With the passage of the Second Amendment Preservation Act, the federal law prohibiting gun possession for those convicted of domestic violence would reportedly be deemed “invalid” in Missouri. State law currently only bans felons and fugitives from obtaining firearms.

“The Governor is aware of the legal implications of this bill, but also that, now more than ever, we must define a limited role for federal government in order to protect citizen’s rights guaranteed by the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution,” Parson’s spokeswoman Kelli Jones wrote in a statement, according to the Kansas City Star.

“This is about empowering people to protect themselves and acknowledging the federalist constitutional structure of our government,” she said.

Parson is set to sign the bill on Saturday during a ceremony at Frontier Justice shooting range, the Kansas City Star reported.