The mayors of Missouri’s two biggest cities have blasted proposed laws that says Missourians do not have to obey any federal gun laws they consider infringements of their Second Amendment rights.
St. Louis Mayor Frances Slay and Kansas City Mayor Sly James say the proposed laws cripple law enforcement’s abilities to make the streets safer. He tells a small audience at the Capitol, “This gun nullification legislation is absurd, embarrassing and it’s reckless. Its bad for Missouri and it’s worse for the state’s two largest cities.”
Slay joins James in calling the legislation “an affront to our communities” and says the bills would make already-bad laws worse, telling the same audience, “We’re both experiencing slow-motion mass murder in our cities.” He recalls the recent case of the Kansas City freeway shooter, a man suspected of shooting at more than a dozen cars on a busy highway who was arrested through joint operations with local, state and federal law enforcement agencies. “That very partnership…that resulted in a quick arrest in that case would be illegal under this legislation and for participating federal agents, it would actually be criminal,” he says.
James says the bills are not just problems for the big cities. He says they would be problems for any community where gun crime exists.
Sponsors deny the characterizations by the mayors of their bills. Governor Nixon’s veto of a gun bill last year narrowly escaped being overridden. Supporters of this year’s bills think they’ll be able to do it this time.
