After an Independence, Missouri, police officer was shot and killed in September, state law enforcement initially refused to accept routine federal assistance in tracing the murder weapon. A Missouri state trooper released a federal fugitive after a traffic stop. The Missouri state crime lab is refusing to process evidence to help in federal firearms prosecutions.

These and other examples of the fallout from Missouri's law declaring federal firearms restrictions null and void were outlined in a damning court brief last week by the U.S. Justice Department, which called the state law "a clear and substantial threat to public safety."

It is. The Republican legislators who voted for this unconstitutional screed, and the governor who signed it, should publicly explain why they have abandoned the once-universal GOP principle of law and order.

Missouri's "Second Amendment Preservation Act," signed in June by Gov. Mike Parson, prohibits police in Missouri from helping enforce any federal gun law or restriction that Missouri considers to be in violation of the Second Amendment.

The problem, of course, is that Missouri doesn't get to decide that. Federal laws can be challenged in court and struck down by judges, but state governments can't just nullify those laws within their borders. A little passage in the U.S. Constitution known as the Supremacy Clause is clear on that, and a little conflict called the Civil War settled the matter.

Parson and his fellow Republicans in the Legislature knew when they passed this cynical law — challenging the very structure of American government — that the courts will ultimately find it unconstitutional. They passed it anyway, because when it comes to pandering to the gun-crazy right, the Missouri GOP will not be out-pandered.

The law threatens $50,000 in liability to any police agency found to be in violation. That's right: Missouri Republicans believe those who break federal gun laws should be able to sue the police if they get arrested for it. Because of the law's vague language (how is an average police officer supposed to know whether a given federal gun restriction is considered by Missouri to be in violation of the Second Amendment?), many police agencies are playing it safe by simply declining to cooperate with any gun-related federal investigations at all.

What a great law ... for criminals.

In a recent brief filed in support of a pending court challenge to the law, the Justice Department revealed that the Missouri Information and Analysis Center, which normally aids in federal investigations of firearms offenses, has stopped cooperating. And the Missouri Highway Patrol and other agencies have stopped participating in joint operations involving federal firearms enforcement.

"Since taking effect, the law has already seriously impaired the federal government's ability to combat violent crime in Missouri," the Justice Department warns. Voters should remember that when legislative members of the "law and order" party come up for reelection next year.

REPRINTED FROM THE ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

Photo credit: Jay_Rembert at Pixabay