Missouri Looking to Work With Other States to Nullify Federal Gun Regulations

In a similar manner in which Democrat leaders have worked to Nullify federal marijuana laws, Republicans are looking to do with Federal gun laws.

According to a recent article in the Tennessean, conservative members of the Missouri legislature are looking to band together with other states to stop the current and future erosion of the Second Amendment. Believing it will be more effective for like-minded states to gather together rather than trying to stop the Federal Government one on one, the Republican led Missouri legislature wants to work with others.

Last year, the Missouri legislature came one vote shy in the Senate of overriding Gov. Jay Nixon’s veto of the Second Amendment Preservation Act. This year, Sen. Brian Nieves has introduced a streamlined bill he hopes addresses the problems in last sessions effort. The new bill adds a wrinkle.The plan is to make the changes go into affect in 2017, giving confidence to other states and time for those states to pass similar laws.

“We continue to see the federal government overreach their rightful bounds, and if we can create a situation where we have some unity among states, then I think it puts us in a better position to make that argument,” Nieves told the Tennessean.

The Tennessean article points out that federal courts have consistently ruled against states nullifying federal law, and logic tells us this would be the case again. After all, the federal courts are part of the federal apparatus. However, stopping nullification in the practical sense has failed in the case of marijuana legalization. It was ruled “unconstitutional” for medicinal purposes in 1996.Today, 21 states have medical marijuana programs and two states have legalized it for recreational use. Tenth Amendment Center national communications director Mike Maharrey said the same thing would happen if a bunch of states passed similar laws addressing violations of the Second Amendment.

“The state noncompliance is the real key,” he said. “You get 20 – 30 states refusing to enforce federal gun laws, it would be just like weed. The feds simply don’t have the resources to enforce these so-called laws themselves. They need state cooperation. These bills strip that away and leave them high and dry.”