Missouri’s Second Amendment Preservation Act, signed by Gov. Mike Parson in June, was drawn up to “send a message to Washington, D.C., that here in Missouri, we’re going to protect our right to bear arms” Sen. Jason Bean told those in attendance at Monday’s chamber luncheon, hosted by the Greater Poplar Bluff Area Chamber of Commerce.
However, Bean said, the law has seen an “unintended consequence.”
Under the law, local law enforcement officials cannot work with federal agencies or law enforcement on any weapons charges, and if they do, they can face large fines.
“That’s making it very, very hard for local law enforcement to help when there is a federal weapons charge,” Bean said. “They cannot help a federal officer when they deal with a weapons charge on a federal level.”
The intent of the bill “is exactly what we wanted,” Bean said. “But we don’t want to hurt the efficacy of all our law enforcement working together.”
Doing so could put each local officer who cooperates with federal agents on the hook for a $50,000 fine, Bean said, and such a case recently was filed against officers in Ripley County.
With the seriousness of those consequences, Bean said, the Missouri Senate and House will work to fix the bill as soon as possible.
“We’re going to work with prosecutors and local law enforcement to try to come up with some fixes for that,” Bean said.
“One thing we want to do is get some things changed where it’s not individual officers (being held liable), it’s departments,” he added.
Rep. Hardy Billington said he has spoken with Poplar Bluff Police Chief Danny Whiteley, Sheriff Mark Dobbs, the Missouri State Highway Patrol and others, and will work to correct the bill.
“I care for the law enforcement in town, and I’m batting for them 110%,” Billington said.
“We need to work together, and we need to make sure our law enforcement is protected. I don’t want a law that allows a policeman to be sued individually, period,” he added.
Billington said he was a co-sponsor on the original bill, but noted “attorneys try to protect criminals and try to find anything in there to make it possible to not allow them (the police) to arrest somebody.”
“We need to tweak it and make sure they can,” Billington said.
“They couldn’t have asked for a better name for a strong Second Amendment act, but the main intention was keeping overreaching new federal laws from coming down the turnpike from taking law-abiding citizens’ weapons,” said Rep. Darrel Atchison. “It certainly was not meant to help the bad guys.”
Atchison said the legislature “for sure doesn’t want to do anything to hinder law enforcement keeping bad guys off the street.”
The governor’s office, the state attorney general and the leadership in both the House and Senate, Atchison said, are “going to go back and look at that closer, and if there’s something lawful there that can be tweaked, I think everyone will be happy to tweak it to keep bad actors off the streets and not hinder law enforcement.”
The “last thing we want to do is create an environment that makes it more suitable for a criminal,” Bean added, “so we’re going to try to do everything we can” to fix it.
The three legislators also spoke during Monday’s luncheon about bills they worked on during the last session and their commitments to their constituency throughout the year.
Bean said it was “an honor to serve” as vice-chairman of two committees in his first term, the Transportation, Infrastructure and Public Safety Committee and the Agriculture, Food Production and Outdoor Resources Committee.
He had eight bills cross the governor’s desk, he reported, including those which deal with utility bills and renewable energy, access to public health care, a casino bill affecting the Bootheel and more.
Atchison said a typical day for him begins early and many times runs late into the night.
He reported collaborating with Billington and Bean on bills makes a strong voice in Jefferson City.
“One voice goes a long way,” he said.
One of his highest priorities, Atchison said, is helping people “navigate state government.”
Billington spoke of the importance of small businesses in the local community and a job-training bill he’s authored.
He also spoke of his copper-theft bill, which, he said, “hopefully will cut down on copper thefts.”