By: Anthony Morelli
When people don’t play by the rules, bad things happen.
That is exactly what is happening right now.
A gun control power grab is taking place after one unthinkable act was committed.
People are free to disagree about hot-button issues like guns, but everyone should play by the rules, which means separation of powers have to be respected.
The states have power over local communities within their jurisdiction, and even if the leaders of that community don’t like the laws the state has passed, they still have to abide by them.
The opposite of that, however, is happening in the state of Missouri where local anti-gun politicians are rebelling against laws that have been passed at the state level to protect the Second Amendment.
It’s leading to some chaos and causing major confusion in the community.
The state is surely going to assert their authority and remind local leaders that they do not have a right to do this.
But the local leaders are ignoring the state and pressing ahead with their gun control agenda regardless of what the state says they can or cannot do.
According to Bearing Arms, “When Jackson County, Missouri Executive Frank White vetoed a package of local gun control ordinances last week, he rightfully pointed out that the measures are ‘fundamentally flawed, unlawful, and counterproductive.’ The state of Missouri has a firearms preemption law in place that prohibits localities from adopting their own gun laws, and there’s no doubt that the ordinances approved by the Jackson County legislature violate the state’s preemption statute.”
This should have been the end of it, as the law clearly states that the local municipalities can’t just go their own way on gun control.
But instead, these local politicians are simply bucking the state and doing whatever they want.
The article continues, “White said that if the ordinances were allowed to take effect, it would open up Jackson County to ‘costly legal battles,’ but Jackson County lawmakers are apparently willing to let taxpayers foot the bill for their quixotic attempt to subvert state law because they’ve overridden his veto and put the county on a collision course with the state of Missouri.”
“There’s no question that the ordinances conflict with state law. The biggest unknowns at the moment are who will sue to strike down the new ordinances, and whether Jackson County Sheriff Darryl Forte will try to enforce the measures adopted by county lawmakers.”
If these people do not like the laws that are in place at the state level, they should try to change them, as that is how democracy works.
Everyone has elected representatives to the state legislature, and those people are responsible for representing the wishes of their community.
It just so happens that Missouri is a pretty pro-gun state, and most of the legislators in that state are going to generally support the Second Amendment.
Not everyone is going to be happy in a democracy, but that doesn’t mean they can simply buck the rules and do whatever they want.