Ellington: House gun rights laws violate First Amendment, Supremacy Clause

In his latest report to constituents, Rep. Brandon Ellington, D-Kansas City, points out the futility of the Missouri House's continuing string of gun rights legislation that doesn't stand a chance of withstanding a challenge in the courts.

The House of Representatives on April 18 voted 115-41 in favor of wide-ranging gun rights legislation that, among other things, purports to make it a state crime for federal law enforcement officials to enforce any existing or future federal guns laws in Missouri, including a nearly 80- year-old federal law that bars private ownership of machine guns, hand grenades and other heavy duty weaponry. The bill, HB 436, now advances to the Senate. 

Supporters said the bill would protect Missourians’ rights to keep and bear arms under the Sec-ond Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The bill, however, appears to violate both the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution and well as First Amendment rights to free speech and freedom of the press. 

Under the Supremacy Clause, federal laws are superior to contradictory state laws, which would render unconstitutional the provisions declaring federal gun laws unenforceable in Missouri. If HB 436 were to become law, any Missouri law enforcement officer who attempted to arrest a federal law enforcement officer for enforcing federal gun laws could potentially be exposed to federal prosecution for obstruction of justice.

Another provision of HB 436 attempts to make it a crime to for any person or entity to publish any indentifying information about someone who owns a firearm or who holds or applies for a license or permit to own, acquire, posses or carry a firearm. Such a blanket publication ban likely runs afoul of the rights to free speech and freedom of the press guaranteed by the First Amendment.