Missouri Republican Wants To Make It A Felony For His Fellow Lawmakers To Propose Gun Laws

[kpete]

Source: Think Progress

Missouri state Rep. Mike Leara (R) loves the Second Amendment so much he wants to make it a felony for state lawmakers to propose legislation he thinks would violate it.

On Sunday, Leara offered up this addition to Missouri law:

“Any member of the general assembly who proposes a piece of legislation that further restricts the right of an individual to bear arms, as set forth under the second amendment of the Constitution of the United States, shall be guilty of a class D felony,” Leara’s bill reads in its entirety.

Leara’s bill comes amidst a flurry of red state legislation aimed at nullifying any new firearms regulations coming out of Washington in the wake of the Newtown, Conn., school massacre. (The White House and other supporters of new gun control have said over and over their proposals do not violate the Constitutional right to bear arms.)

Read more: http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2013/02/mike-leara-missouri-gun-bill-felony.php?ref=fpnewsfeed

[riverbendviewgal]

1. They are crazy are they

what kind of democracy is he representing?

[lupulin]

21. Well, it is just a class D!

But yeah, that's nuts.

[AsahinaKimi]

53. its beyond Crazy...

Its freaking insane. These people should not be in public office. They all need mental examinations. Maybe it should be required they take some kind of mental testing before being allowed to become a lawmaker.

[AndyA]

2. Good grief!

Wonder how he feels about the other rights people have...like the right to life?

Well regulated, dude. Those words are there for a reason, not just so you can ignore them.

[bubbayugga]

3. game on. nt

[TwilightGardener]

4. Another Banana Republican. Those state-level guys are hilarious.

"I know, let's just make laws against making laws!" Next they'll propose making Democrats illegal.

[arbusto_baboso]

44. Don't give them any ideas.

They're fucking nutbags and might actually try.

[onehandle]

5. The Second Amendment trumps the First Amendment.

Idiot knuckledragger.

[earthside]

8. They hate the First Amendment ...

Last edited Wed Feb 20, 2013, 11:17 AM - Edit history (1)

... when you use it; they think 'free speech' should be reserved for them and people who completely parrot what they say.

Ask the Dixie Chicks about that.

[Volaris]

56. well, YEAH,..

the Conservative motto in this country is as follows:
We only like it when it works in OUR favor.

[Angry Dragon]

6. How come they all seem to forget one of the first words??

REGULATE

[csziggy]

7. Okay, let's extend this to restricting women's choices

Since forty years ago the Supreme Court determined that abortion is constitutional, why not make it a felony to propose legislation that abridges women's rights to choose what they can do with their bodies?

[Hugabear]

15. There you go with that liberal logic

Don't you know that God Almighty trumps the Constitution?

If God didn't want us to have guns, he would have included it in the Ten Commandments.

[sinkingfeeling]

9. He'd better make one about involuntary admittance to the looney bin since he's on his way.

[PatrynXX]

10. well if that were the case

any birther who thinks Obama wasn't born in the USA shall be hanged for treason. alas there's this first amendment thing we have...

[SoapBox]

11. USSR? East Germany? China?

...these PukeBaggers just LONG for a Fascist Dictatorship.

[benld74]

12. God I absolutely hate MO legislatives WHO DO NOTHING to HELP this state.

[Lucky Luciano]

13. That is fine as long as he also gets a felonly for proposing a gun law. nt

[valerief]

14. Good god, it's one lunatic after another in this godforsaken country. nt

[Moostache]

17. Too broad....East Kansas is trying to corner the market on "teh crazee"...

I had never really thought about running for public office, but I may have to look into it just so I can file 1000's of new gun laws and bug the bejesus out of the Tea-bagging fools in this armpit state of the nation.

I did not realize when the University of Missouri joined the SEC that we would begin immediately competing with South Carolina for the title of most insane politicians per capita in the country, but we're winning now.

[samsingh]

16. repugs get stupider all the time

wouldn't this violate the First Amendment?

[Downtown Hound]

18. Apparently they don't love the first amendment quite as much as the second. n/t

[BadgerKid]

19. Because introducing new laws would be....unlawful!

[geek tragedy]

20. A cornerstone of democracy is privilege for legislators to propose legislation

and vote without fear of government reprisal.

This is fascist lunacy.

[yardwork]

22. Is he this protective of the other nine amendments in the Bill of Rights?

Didn't think so.

[cosmicone]

23. I thought this was from the Onion but sadly it isn't .... n/t

[Deep13]

24. sorry, legislative immunity

nothing a law maker does in furtherance of his or her duties can ever be a crime.

[SayWut]

25. I wouldn't get bent out of shape over this.

The intent of the bill is to make a statement condemning those legislators seeking to limit, or infringe on the 2nd amendment rights of the citizens of Missouri.

Even the bills author acknowledges that...

Unlike some of the sponsors of those bills, Leara said he doesn’t expect his bill to pass. He filed the bill criminalizing certain bill language to make a point about freedom, he said.

“I filed HB 633 as a matter of principle and as a statement in defense of the Second Amendment rights of all Missourians,” he said in a statement sent to TPM Tuesday. “I have no illusions about the bill making it through the legislative process, but I want it to be clear that the Missouri House will stand in defense of the people’s Constitutional right to keep and bear arms.”

And speaking of foolish proposals, I think it's safe to assume that Rep. Learas bill was filed in response to the following piece of legislative nonsense...

"Rep. Rory Ellinger proposes Missouri assault weapon ban
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) - Possessing an assault weapon in Missouri would be illegal under a bill that has been introduced by a state House Democrat.

Rep. Rory Ellinger, of University City, filed a bill this week that would require gun owners to give up their semi-automatic weapons within 90 days of the measure's passage. Failure to surrender an assault weapon would result in a felony charge.

It would also be illegal to manufacture or import such weapons in the state. The measure would exempt state and federal law enforcement from the ban.

The bill has not been referred to a House committee, and the Republican-led Legislature is unlikely to act on it. ".

http://www.ksdk.com/news/article/363305/3/Rep-Rory-Ellinger-proposes-Missouri-assault-weapon-ban

Link to text of bill: http://www.house.mo.gov/billtracking/bills131/biltxt/intro/HB0545I.HTM

So, there you have it. A simple game of political grandstanding from both sides of the issue.

[caraher]

34. Talk about false equivalency

States and localities have passed many regulations on firearms over the years; some that have been challenged have held up in court while others have not, and Ellinger's bill isn't completely insane or obviously unconstitutional.

A bill to declare a felony the proposal of certain kinds of laws, however, is as frivolous as case of grandstanding as legislative activity can get.

[SayWut]

39. Right.

How many of those laws mandated surrendering, rendering inoperable or outright prohibited the possession of currently owned firearms (with or without compensation from the state)?

Failure to comply resulting in felony charges, followed by inevitable confiscation, seizure of previously legally owned property.


"4. Any person who, prior to the effective date of this law, was legally in possession of an assault weapon or large capacity magazine shall have ninety days from such effective date to do any of the following without being subject to prosecution:

(1) Remove the assault weapon or large capacity magazine from the state of Missouri;

(2) Render the assault weapon permanently inoperable; or

(3) Surrender the assault weapon or large capacity magazine to the appropriate law enforcement agency for destruction, subject to specific agency regulations.

5. Unlawful manufacture, import, possession, purchase, sale, or transfer of an assault weapon or a large capacity magazine is a class C felony."

"frivolous as case of grandstanding as legislative activity" you say?

The author of the ban knows full well that his bill has zero chance of making it out of committee hearings, let alone passing a floor vote.
Which leads me to conclude that he's either making some lame statement ('someone needs to do something'), pandering to a specific voting bloc, or just plain naive (perhaps all that and and more).

[66 dmhlt]

55. We duly note that Your Pearls Have Been Clutched!

[ronnie624]

58. Wrong.

Proposing legislation to regulate firearms is not the same as proposing legislation to criminalize the act of proposing legislation.

I don't think it's possible to not see the difference if you think about it for a short time.

[Zoeisright]

26. I never fail to be amazed at how incredibly ignorant

repukes are, and the amount of incredibly stupid things they think up. How many hours in the day do they spend coming up with this ridiculous shit? The knots they tie themselves into are astounding.

[redstatebluegirl]

27. It is the state nuts we have to worry about.

While we focus on the national elections, state and local elections are being won by nuts like this one. My Dad always said to vote in EVERY election because the local politicians can screw with your world more than the national ones will.

We all need to remember that while we crow about the downfall of the national republican party. They are laughing at us while they dominate the state and local elections...

[City Lights]

28. He's bonkers!

[sakabatou]

29. WTF?!

[struggle4progress]

30. yeah. oh yeah.

[Loup Garou]

31. Missouri: The home state of Todd Akin and Rush Limbaugh

[RC]

41. And to think I moved from the sane state of North Dakota to live here.

North Dakota has its share of nutz, but nothing like Missouri does. Little did I know...

[mpcamb]

32. Lucky man

Lucky there's no law against being a Butthead in the Show-Me state.
He'd be serving hard time.

[VA_Jill]

33. WTF?

They're getting purely nutty down there in Missouri. Must be all the crazy seeping over from Kansas......

[Skittles]

35. just more proof of their delusion and paranoia

fuck them all

[yellowcanine]

36. Proposing a law would be covered under the 1st amendment.

So such a law would itself be unconstitutional.

[loyalsister]

37. Even better

Why not make it a felony (retroactive) for any legislator to vote in favor of any legislation that is determined unconstitutional. Maybe they would do some homework. And everyone who voted 'yea' on the voter ID bill (later found unconstitutional) would be prosecuted.

[duhneece]

38. At last, some creativity!

I don't think I've heard of anything quite like this before.

[AlbertCat]

40. the right of an individual to bear arms, as set forth under the second amendment

So ..... they have to be in a well regulated militia.... right. That's what it says...1st up!

[RC]

42. With all the people dropping dead of bullet holes, how well regulated can they be?

[krispos42]

43. Grandstanding, and stupid at that.

It was my understanding that legislatures were legally immune from the effects of any laws they pass.

[SwankyXomb]

45. When did Missouri change it's motto to

Show Me the Crazy?

[47of74]

51. Seems to me that Missouri is....

....St. Louis and Kansas City with Alabama/Mississippi in-between.

[Hayabusa]

46. Yeah, well I propose

we make a law that makes making a gun law a felony a felony.

Then he'd make a law making a law that makes making a law that makes making a gun law a felony a felony a felony.

Is that clear?

[Lucky Luciano]

47. Yep! That is the gist of my post #13 above.

...since he is in effect making a gun law

[xmas74]

48. He can join my sheriff

He stated that he refuses to enforce any and all laws that can possibly pertain to gun control.

[mwooldri]

49. so it would be illegal to introduce legislation to...

... Put in a constitutional amendment against the 2nd amendment? Isn't that in itself unconstitutional?

[blkmusclmachine]

50. F/ck that sh!t

[Veri1138]

52. It is established jurisprudence...

that a legislative body may not pass legislation that is intended to block future legislation. Thus thwarting the will of the People.

This is just another fine example of just why Republicans are the very definition of Bad Gub'mint.

Seriously, Republicans and their ilk, are thoroughly incapable of effectively governing the nation. Or any nation, for that matter.

[Turbineguy]

54. What's

the rap on that?

[Tommy_Carcetti]

57. This is actually a standard MO of many an NRA pushed legislation.

Essentially extort and threaten anyone who dare crosses their agenda.

Here in Florida, we have a walking piece of excrement named Marion Hammer, one of the NRA's chief lobbyists. She personally wrote many gun laws herself. One such law was a prohibition against doctors asking a patient whether they had a guns in their house. Hammer's original draft made it a felony for a doctor to ask such a question. Because obviously there's no good reason why a doctor should ask a patient whether there are guns in the home, other than to just be a nosy busy body. (Cough cough Nancy Lanza cough cough)

Thankfully the felony provision was ultimately removed from the final version and the entire law has now been put on hold thanks to a smart judge, but it's quite common to see the NRA attempt to shame and threaten legislators who don't see things their way.

[Ikonoklast]

59. Ongoing assault by the NRA against public health issues.

The CDC cannot do any studies on mortality or morbidity of gun owners or the effects that gun ownership has on the health of others in the household due to NRA pressure on Congress.

They fear and hate the TRUTH.

I guess that sticking your fingers in your ears, tightly closing your eyes, and screaming "NO NO NO NO NO NO!!!" at the top of your lungs substitutes for rational discussion of issues affecting public health at NRA headquarters.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

60. Funny that the NRA's response to Sandy Hook was "It's not guns, it's mental health!"

And yet any attempt to correlate gun violence and gun ownership with mental health issues is met with the highest resistance from the NRA.