We reported after the upset of the Georgia Senate last week that gun owners had three reasons to be hopeful as they face the next two years of a Democrat controlled government.
We commented at that time that the state of Missouri seems to have hit upon the best defense against federal gun control. It’s called ‘SAPA’ or the Second Amendment Preservation Act.
What Is SAPA And How Does It Work?
SAPA legislation is simple. It essentially makes an entire state a ‘Second Amendment Sanctuary’ — and has a lot more teeth to it than any county resolution could ever have.
Here’s how it works.
SAPA nullifies federal gun control laws by requiring state law enforcement officers and state officials to only enforce state laws regarding firearms, ammo, and accessories — and only if that state law complies with the Second Amendment.
That means that if Joe Biden and his radical Democrat legislature pass a federal law requiring the confiscation of the AR-15 and all magazines that hold over ten rounds of ammunition, that state’s city, state, and county authorities would be required to ignore it.
If it sounds too good to be true, it’s not. Missouri has already filed SAPA legislation for this session! They are leading the way in this fight — and we think dozens of red states are going to follow suit!
Historical Standing
This legislation is based on the anti-commandeering or federalism doctrine which states that the federal government may not simply ‘commandeer’ the state’s legislative process and force its agenda on the states.
The Supreme Court has upheld this idea in the past, and not just in regards to some dusty old law. The most recent examples include:
Obamacare: In the 2012 ObamaCare case (NFIB v Sebelius,) the Supreme Court cited the anti-commandeering doctrine again, as they affirmed the states’ right to refuse to expand Medicare.
More, the Court also prohibited federal retribution through the withholding of federal funding for state programs! So if a state doesn’t want to play ball with Biden and crew in regards to gun control, they wouldn’t be allowed to withhold federal money to force their hands!
New Jersey: As recently as two years ago, in its 2018 Murphy v NCAA decision, the Supreme Court reaffirmed the fact that the state legislature in New Jersey had the right to place restrictions on sports gambling, even though the new state law contradicted federal law.
Writing for the majority, Justice Samuel Alito made it clear that federal law may not simply trample over states rights when he said, “A more direct affront to state sovereignty is not easy to imagine.”
An Old Idea — Improved
This idea isn’t new, and some gun owners might remember that a version of this was all the rage during the Obama administration. That version was called the “Firearms Freedom Act.”
But SAPA solves one of the biggest problems with the Firearms Freedom Act: who stops the feds?!
You see, the FFA required that the state’s attorney general to come to the defense of the gun owner whose rights were being trampled. Needless to say, that was a pipe dream in many states, even historically pro-gun states!
But Missouri’s SAPA legislation is much different.
Their bill would allow individual gun owners to bring government officials who violate their rights to civil court on their own initiative! That’s right: gun owners can SUE any state law enforcement official, judge or mayor who tries to enforce federal gun control!
Sure, it doesn’t stop the Feds from coming into the state, but many in law enforcement will tell you that that the federal government relies on state and local authorities to enforce the vast majority of federal law — they don’t have the manpower!
SAPA Is The Future Of The Fight Against Gun Control
We’ll be talking more about SAPA legislation in the days to come — and we expect to see it sweep the country much like the Second Amendment sanctuary movement did early last year.
But this time, instead of relying on weak Attorney Generals to enforce it or a county level resistance, gun owners would have a much better defense against Biden and the radical left’s gun control.