(TheRedWire.com) – A U.S. federal judge ruled on Tuesday that the U.S. Justice Department won in the case to have a Missouri law tossed out. The law declared that federal gun laws with no equivalent statutes in Missouri law were “invalid.”
According to the federal court the law which was signed by Republican Gov. Mike Parson in 2021 is unconstitutional. The law previously noted that there were certain federal gun laws that infringed on the rights of individuals to own and bear arms which are protected by the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment.
U.S. District Judge Brian Wimes in Jefferson City, Missouri, has ruled that the state’s Second Amendment Preservation Act (SAPA) violates the U.S. Constitution’s Supremacy Clause, which states that federal laws win over conflicting state laws.
Wimes, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, has sided with Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration and said that the law in Missouri was “counterintuitive” since it exposed citizens to more dangers instead of protecting them. He also wrote that the federal government’s ability to enforce firearms regulations designed by Congress is important for citizen protection.
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, a Republican, in his own statement, said the decision would be appealed to protect the rights of Missourians in bearing arms.
Under the Missouri law, also known as H.B. 85, state or local law enforcement agencies could previously be fined $50,000 if they chose to enforce a federal law that did not abide by the state measures.
In the Justice Department’s lawsuit in February 2022, they argued that due to this law, many state and local law enforcement agencies had stopped assisting in investigations or enforcing gun laws.
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