Judge Throws Out Missouri Statute Restricting Federal Gun Laws

A federal judge ruled that the measure violated the U.S. government’s right to enforce its laws and was a threat to public safety.

A man in a T-shirt behind a display of guns.
In 2021, Missouri lawmakers passed the Second Amendment Preservation Act, which prohibits state and local cooperation with federal officials on gun laws if those laws are deemed in conflict with the Second Amendment.Credit...Christopher (KS) Smith for The New York Times

By Glenn Thrush
March 7, 2023
Updated 9:22 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON — A federal judge in Kansas City on Tuesday struck down a Missouri law that restricted local and state law enforcement agencies in carrying out federal gun laws, ruling that the statute violated the Constitution and posed a grave threat to public safety.
Judge Brian C. Wimes of the Western District of Missouri ruled that the Second Amendment Protection Act, passed in 2021 by the Republican-controlled state legislature, represented a blatant attempt to illegally usurp the federal government’s constitutional right to enforce federal laws without state interference.

In his 24-page decision, Judge Wimes wrote that Missouri is now “prohibited from any and all implementation and enforcement” of the law, which had allowed gun owners to seek damages of up to $50,000 from local police and sheriff’s departments that enforced federal gun laws deemed to conflict with Second Amendment rights.

The law — passed as part of a right-wing backlash to President Biden’s pledge to press for new gun control legislation — was popular with the state’s Republican politicians but faced skepticism from conservative law enforcement officials who said it hampered their capacity to fight surging gun violence in the state.

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