Opinion: States surpassing federal gun laws
Gun restriction is back in political discourse. States are responding to federal gun laws in many different ways. Some states are creating laws that correlate to the federal law. Other states, however, are trying to create bills and laws to override the federal gun law. Missouri is one of them.
Gov. Jay Nixon vetoed a bill that would override the federal gun law in place. The Republican-led Senate voted 22-12 to override Nixon’s veto on Wednesday, just one vote short of the needed majority. The Republican-led House also voted 109-49 to override the veto the same day, hitting the exact number needed to get the majority.
The bill would have allowed the state to prosecute federal officials who tried to enforce the federal laws. The bill also would have allowed convicts to sue federal officials who would arrest them on gun charges.
Other states, including Kansas and Montana, have written and tried to pass similar bills in their legislatures. However, the governors of both states believe that these laws are unconstitutional. One bill supporter, Rep. Doug Funderbunk, a Republican from Missouri, said, “We have a chance to stand together at a time when our federal government cannot even pass a budget." Opponents to these bills believe that these laws are practically allowing that the state law will override federal law, no matter the instance.
State laws have now gone a bit too far. It is unnecessary to create laws that will surpass federal laws, no matter the subject. That is purely unconstitutional. And what the bill would allow is preposterous. It would allow criminals to sue the government for charging them with a crime. That is pure stupidity. The state may as well allow the criminals to sue the state for arresting them for speeding; it is the same ideology.
The states need to find a logical and reasonable solution if they want to find a way to surpass the federal gun law. There is a loophole in every law; the states just need to find it and take advantage of it. Creating laws that completely dismiss federal government intervention in a state is not the way to go. They need to stop being so irrational and become logical.