HECK YES! A major victory for Missouri gun owners today as the Senate General Laws Committee heard Senator Eric Burlison’s ground-breaking SAPA bill, Senate Bill 39 (SB39), without a single objection from any other legislators today.
We reported earlier how Missouri’s gun owners — led by two rock-star legislators and a ‘no-compromise’ gun rights group — are on the cutting edge of the fight against incoming federal gun control laws from a Biden-Harris administration.
The fact that this bill was heard without a single objection is a great sign. We think more red states are getting the message every day: protect your gun rights at the state level NOW.
Today’s committee meeting wasn’t a fluke. We reported last week how just ten days after Burlison and Taylor’s bills were filed, they already had 30 cosponsors!
What Is SAPA Legislation?
SAPA legislation is based on the well-established ‘anti-commandeering doctrine’ which states that the federal government may not simply ‘commandeer’ the state’s legislative authority and force them to submit to federal laws that conflict with state law.
The idea that the states are separate legal entities that have the right to tell the federal government to pound sand has been upheld by the Supreme Court repeatedly — by conservative and liberal justices alike — going back hundreds of years.
SAPA nullifies federal gun control laws by requiring state law enforcement officers and state officials to only enforce state laws regarding firearms, ammo, and accessories — and only if that state law complies with the Second Amendment.
That means that if Joe Biden and his radical Democrat legislature pass a federal law requiring the confiscation of the AR-15 and all magazines that hold over ten rounds of ammunition, that state’s city, state, and county authorities would be required to ignore it.
And if they tried to enforce federal law anyway — think of some liberal Chief of Police in an urban area — the gun owner whose rights were violated could civilly sue the offending official!
This bill essentially makes the entire state of Missouri into a second amendment sanctuary!
Grassroots Gun Owners –Changing The Gun Rights Landscape
Burlison and Taylor have been immune to pressure from moderate Republicans to compromise on the Second Amendment in part because they have worked hand-in-glove with the state’s largest and most powerful gun rights organization, the Missouri Firearms Coalition.
This organization is behind several key primary victories that we reported on earlier this fall. From kicking out bad RINOs to helping real pro-gun candidates win, MOFC and her members and supporters really flexed their muscle on the political landscape in 2020.
Thanks to political protection from MOFC — and the fact that tens of thousands of gun owners in the state are kept up to day by the gun group — the two legislators were able to plow past any moderate Republicans who might have wanted to water down the bill last year.
And this year, SAPA is sailing through committee without a single objection.
It’s a clear case of a great idea whose time has finally come.