01/19/2023 UPDATE
Status of legal challenges to SAPA

Not much has changed with the Second Amendment Preservation Act since the hearing in federal court on July 6, 2022. At that time the judge took the federal DOJ’s challenge to SAPA under advisement.]

Pending is a motion for summary judgment by the DOJ and motions to dismiss by the Missouri A.G. for failure to state a claim and lack of jurisdiction.

Opponents to SAPA are probably surprised that there has not been a quick ruling, since they were so convinced that this very constitutional law violates the U.S. Constitution’s Supremacy Clause!

We have no idea when there will be a ruling, but will certainly keep you posted. You can check in on the case, yourself, with this link to the case, but you will need to set up a PACER account to access it: https://ecf.mowd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/DktRpt.pl?162346

In the mean time, enforcement of federal gun control in Missouri continues to be on hold, proving the anti-commandeering doctrine at the core of SAPA is a great tool to use against federal overreach!

IN STATE COURT - 21AC-CC00237-01 - CITY OF ST LOUIS ETAL V STATE OF MISSOURI ETAL

Meanwhile, the original state level challenge by St. Louis, Jackson County, and Kansas City is creeping its way through the legal system. Cole County Judge Dan Green had originally dismissed the case, citing the fact that there were pending cases in which criminal defendants were attempting to use SAPA. Judge Green said that he could not provide a ruling on the declaratory judgment request by St, Louis, and Kansas City, since the criminal cases might resolve the issue.

Those cases, however, dealt with alleged crimes that took place before SAPA became law. The Missouri Supreme Court sent the case back to Judge Green for further adjudication.

The Missouri A.G., who is defending SAPA, has until February 14, 2023, to file his full response to Plaintiff's Motion for Summary Judgment and file their own Motion for Summary Judgment

To that end, the A.G. is attempting to do “discovery,” including taking depositions from the plaintiffs. St. Louis, Jackson County, and Kansas City, however, are trying to block discover with a motion to quash the depositions, including a request for a protective order.

Kinda makes you wonder what they are trying to hide…

A hearing on those motions is set in Cole County Court (Jeff City) for 1:30 pm, Monday, January 23, 2023.

Follow the case (21AC-CC00237-01) on CASENET here: https://www.courts.mo.gov/casenet/base/welcome.do

06/10/2021 UPDATE
Governor Parson Announces Signing of HB 85

Good news, for a change, out of Jefferson City!

Governor Mike Parson issued a media advisory this afternoon announcing that he will be signing HB 85, the Second Amendment Preservation Act (SAPA) on Saturday, June 12 at 2:00 pm in Lee's Summit, MO.

The signing will be open to the public, but since it will be indoors, space will be limited.

Here's the location:

Frontier Justice
800 NE Jones Industrial Park
Lee's Summit, MO 64064

Parson also announced that he will be streaming the signing live on his Facebook page.

Because HB 85 has an emergency clause, it will take effect immediately upon signing. (Here's the final verson of HB 85.)

Look for another email from me about what changes with the enactment of SAPA. The most important thing to understand, though, is that this bill ONLY prevents Missouri officials from enforcing or assisting with the enforcement of federal gun control laws against law-abiding Missourians.  It does not prevent federal authorities from enforcing federal laws on their own.

SAPA is designed to prevent wholesale federal gun control, like an "assault weapon" confiscation, since such an effort would require cooperation from local officials.

This is a landmark event.  Although other states have recently passed their versions of SAPA, they have all been watered down with limited application or a lack of accountability to violators.  After Saturday, Missouri will have the strongest SAPA in the country, what the Tenth Amendment Center calls the "gold standard" of SAPA laws.

Sponsors Rep. Jered Tayor and Sen. Eric Burlison deserve a lot of credit for holding the line and keeping MO SAPA strong. Drop them a thank you email.

Thank YOU for all the witness forms, emails, phone calls and trips to the Capitol!  Together, we are making a difference!

In liberty,

- Ron

 

04/29/2021 UPDATE
Senate Takes Up SAPA In Floor Debate

Just a very quick update on the progress of SAPA as we near the end of the Missouri legislative session...  (I'm just getting to this because it has been a busy week with this and other legislative issues.)

The full Senate took up the SB 39 version of the Second Amendment Preservation Act Tuesday evening (April 27, 2021). Listen to the debate archive starting at about 53 minutes here: https://media.senate.mo.gov/DebateArchive/2021/042721/042721II.mp3

A substitute for SB 39 was actually introduced.  It was the same bill text, with a couple of minor tweaks, as the version of HB 85 that recently passed out of the General Laws committee. It retains all the accountability provisions, or "teeth."  This link takes you to the Senate Substitute for SB 39: https://www.senate.mo.gov/21info/BTS_Web/ShowAmendment.aspx?Id=3818

It's typical for bills dsealing with hot issues to spend multiple sessions in Senate floor debate before passage, and SAPA is no different.  Although it is hard to tell from the audio, this session went very well. There were no credible arguments made against the bill, in fact most of the debate by a couple of Democrat opponents of the bill was such an embarrassment that other Democrats may want to distance themselves from that effort.

Near the end of the audio you will notice that an amendment is offered that would make it illegal for anyone sell a firearm to someone on the "No Fly List."m. Senator Burlison then offers a "Point of Order" in objection.  The audio goes silent while the Senate Rules Committee considers the Point of Order.

The intent of the amendment offered by Senator Beck was to embarrass SAPA supporters who vote against the amendment.  They would be accused of wanting terrorists to have guns.

Rep. Jered Taylor and Sen. Eric Burlison, the sponsors of SAPA, anticipated these sorts of attacks and built a defense against them into the bill's title, which says the bill they filed is for "the sole purpose of adding additional protections to the right to bear arms."

That bill title invokes a little known legal doctrine brought to the forefront in a recent Missouri Supreme Court case called Calzone v. DESE, in which the Supreme Court said that when a bill's title includes a statement that the bill is for the "sole purpose" of some particular or detail, those particulars or details define the purpose of the bill and that purpose can not be expanded.

In the case of SAPA, the purpose is to protect gun rights. Since Beck's amendment was outside that purpose, it was going to be ruled out of order.  He withdrew his amendment.

The tools for opposing SAPA were greatly diminished.

This is the point at which Senate Leadership really made the difference. It was made very clear to all that they intend to do whatever it takes to pass SAPA. As one friend put it, they sent the message, "Resistance is futile."  It's clear to me that the prospects of the Senate passing SAPA next week are VERY GOOD.

I encourage you to send a short email to Sens. Schatz and Rowden thanking them for bringing SAPA to the floor and for their commitment to passing it.

The Senate has to finish budget bills this week, but SAPA should be back on the floor early next week.

In liberty,

- Ron

 

 

04/08/2021 UPDATE
Senate General Laws Committee passes HB 85

April 8, 2021

On the same day President Joe Biden launched his gun control initiative, the Second Amendment Preservation Act passed another major milestone when the Senate General Laws Committee (chaired by Sen. Bill Eigel) voted 6 to 2 to "do pass" HB 85 and send it on to the full Senate.

The committee approved a "Senate Committee Substitute" that was the result of weeks of study and negotiating with stakeholders, especially law-enforcement interests.

Follow this link to read the actual bill text and a "change log" that explains the differences between this version and the version passed by the House:  www.mofirst.org/issues/docs/SCS-HB85-0767S_09C.pdf

We had to make a few compromises that I would have preferred not to make, but MO SAPA is still the strongest SAPA I know about among the 15 or so states that are following our lead. It still makes it illegal for ALL Missouri officials to provide any assistance in the enforcement of ALL federal gun controls laws against honest citizens.

And HB 85 still includes a private cause of action (e.g. citizens can sue), so you don't have to wait for government to protect you from the government.  The bills specifies a $50,000 penalty, per occurrence, plus court costs when a citizen prevails.

HB 85 still protects law enforcement officers when their superiors make them choose between their job and honoring their oath of office by telling them they have to help Joe Biden with his gun-grabbing agenda.


THE NEXT CHALLENGE

The next step for HB 85 is for Senator Dave Schatz to ask for the bill to be reported out of committee and then place it on the Senate HOUSE BILLS ON THIRD READ Calendar.

If you check out that calendar, you'll see that there is only one House bill listed. That's because Senator Schatz is refusing to move most House bills until the House takes up his bill (SB 262) to raise the motor fuel tax.

This year's legislative session will over on May 14th, so any delays getting SAPA to the Senate floor and passed is just not acceptable.


ACTION ITEM

The ball is in Senator Schatz court, so tell him not to put a fuel tax increase ahead of his duty (see Article I Section 23) to defend our 2nd Amendment rights.

Here's Senator Schatz web page and contact info: https://www.senate.mo.gov/mem26/

###

 

03/18/2021 UPDATE
HB 85 is Finally Moving in the Senate

HB 85 blasted through the House of Representative this year, largely due to the groundwork Missouri patriots did both last year and this year securing co-sponsors. It was one of the first 4 bills passed by the House and was reported the Senate by February 8th.

It sat in the Senate, along with virtually all the other House bills that have passed since then, waiting for committee assignments. Finally on March 11, the day before the legislature went on Spring Break, HB 85 was assigned to the General Laws Committee.

Why did it take so long?

First, understand that there are roughly 2000 bills filed each year, about 1500 in the House and another 500 in the Senate. There is intense competition for time in committees and on the floor of the House and Senate. The House and Senate can be "territorial" with their bills, and the leaders of each chamber want to make sure their members (who elected them to those positions) have a crack at the process.

Accordingly, Senate leadership did not start committee assignments for bills that had already passed the House and were waiting for hearings in the Senate, including HB 85, until after all the Senate bills had been assigned to committees.

The main thing to understand is that it is still early in the session and we have made great progress.

WHAT'S NEXT?

HB 85 was assigned to the General Laws Committee, where the senate version, SB 39, was given top billing and promptly voted "do pass" earlier this year. It will have its own hearing in the next week or two. Currently, the next hearing is scheduled for March 23, but the schedule was already full before HB 85 was referred, and it's unclear whether an opening can be made.

Watch the hearing schedule here: https://www.senate.mo.gov/hearingsschedule/hrings.htm

Once HB 85 has a hearing we are confident that the committee will promptly vote "do pass" and then it will be up to the president pro tem of the Senate, Dave Shatz, to accept the bill from the General Laws Committee and place it on the calendar for the full Senate to consider.

Then, it's up to the majority floor leader of the Senate to call it from the calendar to the floor.

None of that will happen unless enough senators want the bill to pass, and frankly, the Missouri Sheriffs' Association has some of them running cool on SAPA. MSA has not been very cooperative in the efforts to resolve issues they have with the bill.

Fortunately, a number of individual constitution-supporting sheriffs and LEOs HAVE been cooperative, and they have helped to identify areas in SAPA that can be modified to optimize their day to day law enforcement work without diminishing the power of SAPA to protect your rights.

A new Senate Committee Substitute that includes these tweaks has been drafted and will soon be made available to the public.

In the mean time, stay tuned. The next step will be a full court press on the Senate to pass HB 85, as amended by the General Laws committee.

 

County SAPA "ordinances":
Counties like Newton and Mercer are passing SAPA "ordinances" but is that actually a good thing?

Yes and no. What they've passed are not actually legally binding ordinances. And while it might seem like they are supporting the 2nd Amendment, the fake ordinance actually give some people political cover for opposing HB 85 and SB 39, which ACTUALLY DO protect your rights...

Note that both the so-called ordinances have an exception that lets the sheriff and his deputies help federal officials violate your right to bear arms. Read the Newton County "ordinance" HERE. Note that (3)(a) says.

"(a) There will be an exception made for Newton County Missouri local deputies and sheriffs, they shall and will not be held liable to this ordinance when assisting any and all federal agents in the arrests of suspected criminals;"

Real protection can only come from a statewide SAPA, like HB 85 or SB 39.

Get your county to adopt THIS RESOLUTION in support of the full strength HB 85 and SB 39, and let's make Missouri a gun rights sanctuary state!

 

02/04/2021 UPDATE:
The House version, HB 85, passed the entire House by a vote of 103 to 43 today.

The Senate version, SB 39, will likely be held in reserve while HB 85 waits for a hearing opportunity in the Senate. It will have to have a hearing, be voted on in committee, and then go before the whole Senate where it could get amended and either voted up or down..

 

01/28/2021 UPDATE:
The House version of the Second Amendment Preservation Act,
HB 85, was voted "do pass" by the General Laws Committee today.

Both the House and Senate versions have passed the first legislative hurdle. These bills are moving
at a very fast rate and support is growing, but so is the opposition due to a lot of
misinformation about what the bills do. Read the FAQ to get up to speed.