Representative Funderburk introduced a Second Amendment Preservation Act, House Bill 436. This bill is cosponsored by many representatives including Representatives: Jones, Burlinson, Hicks, Rhoads, Ross, Miller, Parkinson, Remole, Anderson, Hurst, Bahr, Brown, Smith, Koenig, Curtman, Dugger, Morris, Sommer, Leara, Gatschenberger, Brattin, Schieffer, and Korman. Missouri is serious by upholding the federal government to its Constitutional responsibility to not infringe on the people’s right to bear arms. Previously, Representative Sommer had introduced HB 162, A Firearms Freedom Act and HB 181 and Interstate Commerce Act.

HB 436 states, “All federal acts, laws, orders, rules, and regulations, whether past, present, or future, which infringe on the people’s right to keep and bear arms as guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article I, Section 23 of the Missouri Constitution shall be invalid in this state, shall not be recognized by this state, are specifically rejected by this state, and shall be considered null and void and of no effect in this state. Such federal acts, laws, orders, rules, and regulations include, but are not limited to: (a) The provisions of the federal Gun Control Act of 1934; (b) The provisions of the federal Gun Control Act of 1968; (c) Any tax, levy, fee, or stamp imposed on firearms, firearm accessories, or ammunition not common to all other goods and services which could have a chilling effect on the purchase or ownership of those items by law-abiding citizens; (d) Any registering or tracking of firearms, firearm accessories, or ammunition which could have a chilling effect on the purchase or ownership of those items by law-abiding citizens; (e) Any registering or tracking of the owners of firearms, firearm accessories, or ammunition which could have a chilling effect on the purchase or ownership of those items by law-abiding citizens; (f) Any act forbidding the possession, ownership, or use or transfer of any type of firearm, firearm accessory, or ammunition by law-abiding citizens; (g) Any act ordering the confiscation of firearms, firearm accessories, or ammunition from law-abiding citizens.”

This bill acknowledges that federal gun regulations have been around for decades. The Gun Control Act of 1934 set up the battle between the right to bear arms and state sovereignty. In Franklin E. Zimring article, Firearms and Federal Laws: The Gun Control Act of 1968 describes how this battle started. “The National Firearms Act of 1934, after the handgun registration provisions were deleted, was a concentrated attack on civilian ownership of machine guns, sawed-off shotguns, silencers, and other relatively rare firearms that had acquired reputations as gangster weapons during the years preceding its passage. Modeled on the Harrison Narcotics Act, the N.F.A. based its regulatory powers on a tax imposed on traffic in the weapons, thus generating federal jurisdiction for intrastate as well as interstate transactions. The tax rate, $200 per transfer, did not seem calculated to encourage extensive commerce in these weapon. The Act also provided for the immediate registration of all covered weapons, even if illegally owned a provision altered in 1968, after the United States Supreme Court held the 1934 provision to be an infringement on the constitutional privilege against self-incrimination.”

Zimring’s article continues, “There are two respects in which the National Firearms Act influenced the shape of the 1968 gun-control effort. First, the N.F.A. put the government in the business of licensing manufacturers and dealers of firearms, although the number of weapons and dealers affected was relatively small. Second, the use of the taxing power again centered enforcement responsibility in the Department of the Treasury.”

In 1968 another measure of gun control was enacted yet, “the gun control issue remained a relatively unimportant one for the Congress. No serious effort was made to oversee or evaluate the administration of the Act. No committee of Congress maintained any special competence in the substantive issue of federal gun regulation… But the basic approach of the 1968 Act had been worked out by the Treasury Department in 1965.”

The article states, “The centerpiece of the new regulatory scheme was the ban on interstate shipments to or from persons who do not possess federal licenses as dealers, manufacturers, importers or collectors, coupled with the declaration that it was unlawful for any person other than a federal-license holder to engage in the business of manufacturing or dealing in firearms, whether or not such a business involves interstate commerce.”

The Gun Control Act of 1968 was to control the state. “To effectuate the state aid goals of the Act, all nonlicensees were prohibited from shipping guns to other private parties in another state and from transferring guns to persons they knew or had reason to believe were residents of another state;and dealers were prohibited from shipping to private citizens in other states and from selling to those who the dealer knew or had reason to believe resided out of state. In the regulations promulgated under the Act, all dealers had to sign a form indicating a customer had produced identification showing he was not a resident of another state. This form, … was retained by the dealer and made available for inspection by Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents.”

HB 436 will void all laws, acts, and orders from the past, present or future, that infringe on the second amendment, “It shall be the duty of the courts and law enforcement agencies of this state to protect the rights of law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms within the boarder of this state from the infringements in subsection 3 of this section. No public officer or employee of this state shall have any authority to enforce or attempt to enforce any of the infringements on the right to keep and bear arms included in subsection 3 of this section. Any official, agent, or employee of the United States government who enforces or attempts to enforce any of the infringements on the right to keep and bear arms included in subsection 3 of this section is guilty of a class A misdemeanor. Any Missouri citizen who has been subject to an effort to enforce any of the infringements on the right to keep and bear arms included in subsection 3 of this section shall have a private cause of action for declaratory judgment and for damages against any person or entity attempting such enforcement.”

A class A Misdomeanor has a maximum penalty of 1 year in jail and up to $1000 fine.

ACTION ITEMS for Missouri

To get this bill to committee, please contact your legislator here.

Join the 2nd Amendment activism group on facebook HERE

LEGISLATION AND TRACKING

If you would like to see model legislation to introduce in your state to nullify federal firearm laws, please see The Tenth Amendment Center’s Model Legislation: The 2nd Amendment Preservation Act.

Track the status of 2nd Amendment preservation legislation in states around the country HERE

Kelli Sladick

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