Missouri’s gun regulation is described by the Department of Justice as a “clear and serious threat to public safety.”
KANSAS CITY, Missouri (CSU) – According to federal officials, a Missouri statute prohibiting local police from implementing federal gun regulations is impeding attempts to safeguard the public.
Multiple examples are outlined in a scorching court brief submitted by the US Department of Justice on Tuesday. According to The Kansas City Star, state law enforcement originally declined customary federal assistance in locating the murder weapon after an Independence police officer was killed in a gunfight in September.
The Missouri state crime lab, which is run by the Highway Patrol, is also refusing to analyze evidence that may aid federal weapons charges, according to the Justice Department.
The Missouri Information and Analysis Center, which is also part of the Highway Patrol, has stopped cooperating with federal authorities looking into federal weapons charges. Furthermore, the Highway Patrol, along with a number of other agencies, has put a halt to collaborative attempts to enforce federal gun regulations.
The Justice Department’s brief was submitted in response to a lawsuit brought by St. Louis City, St. Louis County, and Jackson County contesting the state’s firearms statute.
The Missouri Supreme Court is hearing an appeal of a Cole County court’s judgment maintaining the legislation.
The statute “poses a clear and significant threat to public safety,” according to the brief, and has “seriously harmed the federal government’s capacity to combat violent crime in Missouri.”
Many federal gun prohibitions that do not have a Missouri counterpart are declared “invalid” under the law. These include laws governing the registration and monitoring of firearms, as well as the holding of firearms by some domestic violence perpetrators.
Local governments are prohibited from implementing them, or they risk being sued for $50,000 by those who think their Second Amendment rights have been infringed.
Police are also forbidden from providing “material help and support” to federal agents and prosecutors in implementing those “invalid” rules against “law-abiding persons” – those who are allowed to own a gun under Missouri law.
The Justice Department, Democrats, and other critics of the bill, which Republican Gov. Mike Parson signed in June, believe it is clearly unlawful. The brief appears to contain the most severe examples of the legislation’s impact on police enforcement too far.
It claims that the rule “not only harms vital institutional ties for implementing gun regulations but also increases threats in the field across a wide range of law enforcement operations.”
A representative for the Highway Patrol declined to comment, citing ongoing litigation.
Parson’s spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The office of Republican Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, which is representing the state in the gun law case, has yet to file a brief in the appeal.
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