Second Amendment

As Missouri Republicans push a new version of the Second Amendment Preservation Act through the legislature, law enforcement officials in the state say lawmakers and supporters of the bill are ignoring their concerns.

The law, which would penalize police for enforcing federal gun laws, was ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge in 2023.

A ruling Thursday by the federal appeals court in Chicago allows the law to remain in place while the legal controversy it’s generated continues to work its way through the courts.

Thursday was the final day of the East St. Louis trial challenging the law, passed in response to the 2022 mass shooting in Highland Park.

The law, passed in 2021, penalizes police for enforcing certain federal gun laws.

In the wake of Wednesday’s mass shooting at the Kansas City Chiefs parade, lawmakers say they feel helpless to do anything about firearms or the high homicide rate. That's in large part because Missouri preempts local governments from enacting gun control measures.

Missouri is appealing a federal judge’s decision striking down the Second Amendment Preservation Act, which allows citizens to file suit for up to $50,000 if they believe that police enforcement of federal gun laws violated their right to keep and bear arms.

A federal judge in Kansas City ruled that the Second Amendment Preservation Act in Missouri did not pass constitutional muster. The law allowed citizens to sue Missouri police if they believed their rights to guns were violated by the enforcement of federal regulations.

The U.S. Justice Department has sued Missouri over its "Second Amendment Preservation Act," which bars local law officials from enforcing federal gun policy and could fine them for doing so.

The Missouri Supreme Court sent a case involving the Second Amendment Preservation Act back to a lower court on Tuesday. The ruling lets St. Louis and Jackson County argue that the law, which prevents police in Missouri from cooperating with federal officials to enforce gun regulations, is unconstitutional.