Wednesday, January 16, 2013

In Missouri, we won't follow Obama's gun laws


(The following is my latest Huffington Post blog.)

The worth of a person can be determined by how he or she responds in time of crisis.

After 20 children were murdered in a shooting spree last month at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. the New York legislature quickly took steps to try to stop the gun madness that has enveloped this country.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a bill Tuesday that places stiff restrictions on assault weapons and magazines. The bill was passed by an overwhelming majority of both houses.

That’s New York. In Missouri, our elected representatives acted in an entirely different manner.

As we wait to hear the proposals President Obama will make today, most likely reinstating the assault weapons ban, restricting magazines, instituting universal background checks, and closing the gun show loophole, 62 of our legislators made it known how they would react to anything the president says or does.

They do not plan to obey any federal law or regulation concerning guns from this point on.

“Law of the land.” To Rep. Casey Guernsey, R-Bethany, that phrase is a myth. HB 170, which Guernsey is sponsoring, corrects that myth- the law of Missouri is the only law that matters and if the federal government disagrees with that, we are in open rebellion.

HB 170 calls for the following:

It shall be unlawful for any officer or employee of this state, or any political subdivision, or any federal firearms dealer licensed under 19 U.S.C. Section 923 to enforce or attempt to enforce any act, law, statute, rule, or regulation of the federal government relating to a personal firearm, firearm accessory, or ammunition that is owned or manufactured commercially or privately in the state of Missouri and that remains exclusively within the boundaries of the state of Missouri.    

        2. Any official, agent, or employee of the federal government who enforces or attempts to enforce any act, order, law, statute, rule, or regulation of the federal government upon a personal firearm, a firearm accessory, or ammunition that is owned or manufactured commercially or privately in the state of Missouri and that remains exclusively within the borders of the state of Missouri shall be guilty of a class D felony.

It will be a felony to follow federal law.

And Missouri taxpayer money will be spent to defend anyone who crosses the federal government, according to the bill. Anyone who disobeys a federal gun law will be able to call on the state’s attorney general for help.

Guernsey’s bill has 61 co-sponsors, including all five who represent the Joplin area of the state where I live.

Following the same principle that state legislators have used concerning Obamacare, our officials have simply said, “It does not apply to us.”

Meanwhile, the state takes its own approach to fighting the problem of gun violence in our schools and our society. We have a bill that would require all first graders to take NRA gun safety courses. Another bill would put weapons in the hands of classroom teachers.

And the latest, filed late last week, would put a tax on violent video games.

Anything except address the problem.

The message sent by Casey Guernsey’s law is clear:

-This state will do nothing to limit access to the kind of high-powered weapons that no one outside our police or military need.

-This state will do nothing to ensure that criminals or those with mental problems have no access to guns.

-This state will do nothing to close the gun show loophole.

This state will do nothing, except cross our fingers and hope that it is not one of our elementary schools that is the next target of a crazed gunman.

That brings all all-new meaning, and a horrifying one, to the term “Show-Me State.”

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I know i feel safer in MO. my 14 yr old was talking to classmates about what they would do if a gunman entered their school. 7 out of 10 said they would go to their car and get their gun to defend fellow classmates.

Anonymous said...

The problem is not guns. A better course of action is to determine why people that are mentally and emotionally ill and choose to use guns and large scale violence to solve their problems. Could it be to draw attention to themselves? No, it has to be the fault of law abiding gun owners. I'm tired of the rights and freedoms of law abiding citizens getting tread on by knee jerk political actions.

Anonymous said...

Sorry, but by the time your son and his classmates got to their cars (14-year-old drivers? That's scary enough) the killer would have already dispensed with them. But not to worry - the NRA wants to make sure your son's teacher is adequately armed and trained in the use of firearms. By the way, will the NRA be picking up the tab for this or should we just take the money out of the regular school budget? Hmm.

Anonymous said...

If this is a issue of gun enforcement it would seem that this law may not be enforceable. Not enforcing Federal Law in our state is its self a felony.

Pastor Martin Luther Dzerzhinsky Lindstedt said...

Let's see.

The CONstitution and Bill of Goods is the 'supreme law of the land.' The Second Amendment says that the right of the individual to keep and bear arms "shall not be infringed."

And yet, this Amendment of the Bill of Goods has been infringed upon as has the entire CONstipation and Bill of Goods. The federal criminal regime does whatever it wants.

So then upon a staged pretext in which some misbegotten nutcase kills its mudshark prepper mother and then proceeds to shoot up a elementary school in a place where the gun laws are amongst the most strict. this is seized upon by the parasitic and lawless and self-indulgent as an excuse to disarm the minority lawful and productive people, presumably to enslave and eliminate them under color of law.

So given that you lawless and parasitic rabble demand that some critter not even a citizen should 'infringe' upon the very basis of CONstipational 'law' that the pretense of obedience enables us all to live together in some sort of peace is now done away with you are all annoyed that the lawful are simply saying that they shall not obey your new 'laws' any more than you degenerate and thieving rabble obey the CONstipation and Bill of Goods.

You should be alarmed. If the productive should seize power or simply refuse to work, the current criminal regime built upon a social and financial house of cards shall not long endure. And since it will not be possible to keep a majority of parasites fed and housed and clothed even in an open-air coast-to-coast prison and insane asylum, the guns will come out and there shall be a Civil War followed by mass killing.

All the current silliness in which you parasites and criminals insist that the rest of us obey your laws when you could not obey the social contract of sorts under the CONstipation and Bill of Goods means that at first there will be counter-laws. But eventually the struggle for power and life will mean that the stronger will prevail and since as parasites you cannot produce anything that the productive want, you all will be put down mercilessly. Your kind cannot win because you cannot make us produce enough surplus to provide for you social parasites. If you kill us, then as parasites you will die upon killing your host.

So now what is happening is that you are forcing Missouri sheriffs and Republican politicians to attend "disobedience school". You idiots are literally training us to disobey the federal regime, and then circumstances will force us and teach us to kill.

Do you idiots really think that since you can't obey the law and then get your criminals to make up new laws that all of a sudden we will pretend that you can pass a series of laws to disarm us so that you can enslave and murder us? Why should we do any such thing? Rather, we will soon enough do unto you as you would do unto us.

I think that your kind should be driven to the margins and then finished off as soon as possible.

Anonymous said...

The new gun laws will effect us all. I am a target shooter and a hunter. I will support our RIGHT to bare arms and that includes any simi auto I want. NO ONE WILL TAKE THAT RIGHT AWAY. I live in MISSOURI and I WILL PROTECT HER FROM THE GOVERMENT.. Texas and several other states will jion us. We have a common goal and is to stay FREE. FREE from dunb asses that do not know about guns and or how to use them. AND BY THE WAY my name is MIKE I AM AN AMERICAN. I was born in MISSOURI and I will die there. COME GETEM IF YOU WANT THEM, I WILL BE WAITING!!!!!

Anonymous said...

New York just instituted the most restrictive gun laws in the land. They banned the "assault rifles" whose appearance put liberals panties into a wad. Guess what percent of murders are committed with rifles - all rifles, not just the scary looking ones, nationwide? Less than 3%.

According to the FBI's Uniform Crime Report, guess how many murders were committed in NY with a rifle in 2011? Answer: A grand total of 5! More than 5x more murders were committed in NY with fists, at 26, than using rifles. In Missouri, again using the Uniform Crime Report (which is easily found online), the number of murders committed in 2011 using a rifle was 13. Murderers in Missouri used their fists to commit 18 other murders. So, 38.5% more murders in Missouri were committed by people using their bare hands than by using a rifle. I doubt you want to cut off the hands of sane, law abiding citizens at birth to stop "murder by fist", so why do you want to restrict the Constitutionally protected rights of SANE, LAW ABIDING citizens to own a rifle?

If liberals ever bother looking at data and facts instead of resorting to emotion, they might be able to craft effective public policy that does not restrict the rights of law abiding citizens.