Second Amendment

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.

The suit comes as the Missouri Supreme Court considers a challenge to Missouri’s Second Amendment Preservation Act from St. Louis, St. Louis County and Jackson County.

A St. Louis attorney told the Missouri Supreme Court that the Second Amendment Preservation Act was an "unintelligible statute" that has confused state law enforcement.

Missouri's "Second Amendment Preservation Act," passed in 2021, allows anyone to sue a local police department if they believe their rights to firearms have been infringed. The result is local, state and federal agencies are reluctant to work with one another for fear of potential lawsuits.

The judge ruled that the issue should be litigated by the city of St. Louis, St. Louis County and Jackson County separately.

St. Louis and St. Louis County jointly filed suit Monday asking a judge in Cole County, Missouri, to find the Second Amendment Preservation Act unconstitutional.

Tonya McCaw and Leslie Washington, leaders with Moms Demand Action's Missouri chapter, discuss their fight for gun reform in Jefferson City.