WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Eric Burlison, who led the effort to expand gun rights in Missouri when he was a member of the state Senate, is now going after a cornerstone federal gun law used by the Department of Justice to reduce gun violence.
As a state senator in 2021, Burlison successfully pushed for a state law that stops local police from enforcing certain federal gun laws. On Tuesday, the freshman Republican from southwest Missouri introduced his first bill in Congress, a plan to repeal a 1934 law that taxes the manufacturing and sale of certain guns and requires owners to register those guns.
“The Repeal the NFA Act will strip the ATF of its authority to criminalize lawful gun owners and will undo nearly 90 years of assault on fundamental freedoms,” Burlison said in a press release. “I’m proud to stand with and support Americans nationwide as we take this issue head-on.”
The American Firearms Association, a group that advocates for less-restrictive gun laws, said its federal legislative team helped Burlison craft the bill, which would overturn the National Firearms Act.
“The National Firearms Act (NFA) was tyrannical when it was first passed almost 90 years ago,” said Aaron Dorr, a spokesman for the American Firearm Association in a press release. “But over the years, it has become the number one way for the federal government to target law-abiding gun owners, as the ATF can add accessories like pistol braces to the NFA without needing a vote in Congress!”
The original 1934 act imposed a $200 tax on shotguns and rifles shorter than 18 inches along with machine guns, silencers and mufflers. The tax, which in today’s dollars would be more $4,000, was intended to discourage the purchase of those weapons in response to gang violence in that era. The tax has not been raised since it was introduced.
Burlison’s bill comes after at least 18 people were killed in two, high-profile mass shootings in California. There have already been 40 mass shootings in the U.S. this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, a group that tracks mass shootings, which they define as four or more people who are shot or killed, not including the shooter.
Adzi Vokhiwa, the federal affairs director for the gun control advocate Giffords, said the National Firearms Act has been effective for nearly 90 years and has helped keep dangerous weapons out of the hands of criminals.
“At a time when the nation’s gun violence crisis is worsening, it is irresponsible to introduce legislation that would make it easier for criminals to get their hands on dangerous weapons,” Vokhiwa said. “Repealing the NFA would only endanger public safety. Any policymaker who is serious about reducing crime and violence in this country should condemn this legislation.”
His bill is unlikely to become law. Democrats control the U.S. Senate and Democratic President Joe Biden is unlikely to sign a law loosening gun restrictions when he has repeatedly called for a ban on assault weapons.
Earlier this week, White House press secretary Karine Jean Pierre again urged Congress to pass a law banning assault weapons.
“We have mourned lives lost in mass shootings after mass shootings,” Jean Pierre said Tuesday. “The flags at the White House were already at half-mast in honor of those murdered in Monterey Park when we learned of the shooting in Half Moon Bay. President Biden, like most Americans, believes that this is an urgent issue; that too many of our neighbors, colleagues, kids are losing their lives to gun violence.”
While Burlison’s bill is unlikely to become law, he has maintained the aggressive support for gun rights that characterized his time in Missouri’s legislature has followed him into Congress.
In the Missouri Senate, Burlison spearheaded a state law, the Second Amendment Preservation Act or SAPA, that declares certain federal gun laws “invalid” if they do not have an equivalent in Missouri statutes and prohibits local police from helping federal agents to enforce them.
It isn’t enforced by any one agency. Instead, people are authorized to sue law enforcement officials over alleged violations. Fines of up to $50,000 per violation are possible.
The law, signed by Republican Gov. Mike Parson at a gun store in June 2021, capped a years of effort by Burlison to insert what proponents say are necessary protections against federal instructions on gun rights into state law. As a state senator, and as a state representative before that, Burlison repeatedly pushed Second Amendment-related legislation.
But it has also led to confusion among law enforcement over what is and isn’t allowed. Some departments restricted cooperation with federal authorities, such as joint drug task forces, or limited gun serial number information sent to federal databases. In one case, a Missouri State Highway Patrol trooper released a federal fugitive.
The Department of Justice sued Missouri over the law in February 2022, alleging it hampers their activities and violates the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which ensures federal law supersedes state law. Oral arguments were held in July, but U.S. District Court Judge Brian Wimes has yet to issue a decision.
“I think the legislature spoke loudly when we passed this law. There’s no such thing as perfect law. We have to see how this operates and see how this works. I think it’s working well,” Burlison said last May.
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