The Patriot Post® · Biden DOJ Sues Missouri on Gun Rights Law
We’re not sure what prompted Joe Biden’s Justice Department to file suit against the state of Missouri, but perhaps those uppity McCloskeys are still living rent-free in their gun-grabbing heads.
The McCloskeys, you’ll recall, are the St. Louis couple who in June 2020, in the wake of the George Floyd riots, stood outside their own residence holding firearms to deter a Black Lives Matter mob that was trespassing in their gated neighborhood and verbally threatening them and their home. The fact that the McCloskeys never did prison time for the crime of having used the Second Amendment’s right to keep and bear arms to defend themselves must still stick in this administration’s craw.
In any case, we can be outraged at the lawsuit filed by the DOJ last week, but we shouldn’t be surprised. Attorney General Merrick Garland is seeking to undo a Missouri law, signed in June 2021 by Missouri Republican Governor Mike Parson, which protects the Second Amendment rights of state residents against federal gun control policies that might encroach upon those rights. As Blaze Media notes:
The law, according to Parson, drew “a line in the sand” and declared the state was committed to rejecting “any attempt by the federal government to circumvent the fundamental right Missourians have to keep and bear arms to protect themselves and their property.”
The law prohibited state and local cooperation with federal officials who attempt to enforce laws, rules, orders, or actions that violate the fundamental Second Amendment rights of state residents and made any person or entity who knowingly deprived Missouri citizens of their right to bear arms liable for redress and monetary damages of $50,000.
Examples of possible federal encroachment here might include assessing gun taxes, unlawfully confiscating guns, and unlawfully tracking or requiring registration of firearms and ammunition.
AG Garland clearly takes issue with the Missouri law. “This act impedes criminal law enforcement operations in Missouri,” he said in a statement. “The United States will work to ensure that our state and local law enforcement partners are not penalized for doing their jobs to keep our communities safe.”
What we have, then, is a case that revolves around federalism, a case of states’ rights butting up against the predatory nature of an anti-gun federal government. All Missouri is saying is that if a federal gun law runs up against the clear language of the Second Amendment, Missouri authorities don’t have to enforce it, and its citizens can challenge it.
In a way, Missouri is thus giving the Biden administration a taste of its own “sanctuary city” medicine. For years now, leftist enclaves have refused to do their part in enforcing our nation’s immigration laws, and the Biden administration has willfully abetted them in this abdication. Here, though, Missouri is preemptively refusing to help the federal government should it choose to unlawfully encroach upon its citizens’ Second Amendment rights.
Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt is clearly looking forward to a fight. “Time and again,” he said, “the Biden administration has put partisan politics ahead of public safety. Make no mistake, the law is on our side in this case, and I intend to beat the Biden administration in court once again.”
For the sake of both states’ rights and the Second Amendment, let’s hope he does.