Controversial Missouri gun rights law has taken a toll on fighting crime

By Emma Tucker and Evan Perez, CNN

U.S. marshals preparing for a recent operation with local Missouri police to arrest a suspected drug trafficking fugitive faced last-minute hurdles due to a controversial new state gun rights law, according to U.S. law enforcement officials .

Officials told CNN that local officials in Cape Girardeau had ruled that their officials could not help federal authorities because of the possibility that a drug dealer had a gun in the house.

City officials cited the bill – which was passed by state lawmakers in June and comes into effect this weekend – which the state’s Republican governor says aims to protect the rights of the second amendment to the constitution and the possibility of that federal authorities confiscate weapons meant local officials’ no assistance will be given to federal officials, US law enforcement officials said.

In the end, the operation continued, but the episode is one of several federal agents encountered in Missouri because of concerns about local authorities breaking a state law called the Second Amendment Preservation Act. In some cases, police authorities have withdrawn their officers from federal law enforcement agencies.

The city of St. Louis, St. Louis County and Jackson County filed a lawsuit in June to prevent enforcement of the law, which is scheduled to go into effect Saturday. The Justice Department filed a declaration of interest in support of the lawsuit earlier this month. The Justice Department said Cole County District Judge Daniel Green could rule on the lawsuit later this week.

Most of the conflicts raised by the law, according to Justice Department officials, have arisen during operations involving the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) enforcing gun laws.

But other federal law enforcement agencies have also encountered problems that complicate cases that require federal assistance.

Local, state, and state agencies have partnered with the understanding that federal aid “enables efforts to go beyond state and city boundaries,” said Keith Taylor, a former New York City Police Department officer and associate professor of criminal justice John Jay College. Local involvement ensures law enforcement agencies have enough officials on the ground to conduct a thorough investigation, he added.

The fallout, federal law enforcement agencies say, is hurting efforts to contain crime at a time when violent crime has risen in Missouri and other states in the country.

A study in 29 cities in the first six months of this year showed homicides increased by 16% compared to the same period in 2020 and 42% compared to the first half of 2019, according to the Criminal Justice Council.

In Missouri, the State Highway Patrol reported 730 homicides nationwide in 2020, up 26.5% from 2019, and the 13,869 firearms-related crimes recorded last year represents a 108% increase from 2019. Of more than 8,000 firearms and 218 homicides reported so far this year, with 74% involving a firearm, according to a statement in support of the lawsuit by Frederic Winston, a special agent for ATF’s Kansas City Field Division.

Cape Girardeau City officials and police did not respond to requests for comment. Police departments in the Missouri parishes of Columbia, Sedalia, O’Fallon and Johnson Counties named in the lawsuit either failed to respond to a request for comment or declined to comment when asked by CNN about Winston’s statements.

In an internal memo to Cape Girardeau police officers received and verified by CNN, Lt. Darren Estes, a patrol division commander, told his officers that “it will take a considerable amount of time for the dust to settle and for us to receive clear instructions on what our role will play in the future investigation with the federal police.”

“By the time the law is maintained, amended, or repealed entirely, it will be the policy of our department (as well as many others across the state) NOT to assist federal law enforcement agencies in any investigation,” Estes wrote in the memo .

The law, which will go into effect August 28, “prohibits state and local collaboration with federal officials attempting to enforce any law, rule, order, or act that violates the rights of Missourians under the Second Amendment,” according to the Missouri Office Governor Michael Parson.

Law enforcement agencies could face a $ 50,000 fine for “violating” Missourians’ rights by enforcing a federal gun law, the governor’s office said.

Since the law was passed, 12 of 53 state and local officials with federal agencies have withdrawn from the ATF, Winston wrote in court records.

By removing state and local officials from the task forces, the office “is no longer able to do its job, including preventing, investigating and assisting in the prosecution of violent criminals, so effectively,” wrote Winston.

The ATF, which has 25 field offices across the country, “is the only federal agency authorized to license and inspect arms dealers to ensure they comply with laws governing the sale, transfer, possession, and transport of firearms “, It says in the declaration.

Violent crime in Missouri is a “major problem” and the ATF’s role in limiting illegal access to firearms is “key to preventing further violent crime in the state,” wrote Winston.

According to the law, “protection against federal transgression is triggered when federal officials attempt to violate the state or federal constitution. In addition, the bill is an acknowledgment that the right to keep and carry arms is fundamental and inalienable, ”said Governor Parson’s office.

By not allowing local and state agencies to work with the federal government, efforts to address the national problem of gun violence will be “severely curtailed,” said Taylor of John Jay College.

“They are trying to make federal police intervention in the existing practices of local authorities as difficult as possible,” Taylor told CNN. “The problem is that the illegal arms sale and trade between states can only be addressed at the federal level by working with local authorities.”

The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Safe Streets and Gang Unit administers 160 task forces nationwide that work with federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies to pursue violent gangs through “ongoing, proactive, coordinated investigations to bring criminal prosecution into abuses such as extortion and drug conspiracy “Receiving and violating firearms,” ​​according to the FBI.

The new Missouri law has limited the ability of state and local entities to share information and data with their federal partners, according to the Department of Justice’s Declaration of Interest. This information – which helps law enforcement fight and solve crimes – includes “crime-related data, police reports, investigative materials, background information on targets” and access to “evidence such as firearms and ammunition used in crimes”, the Declaration of Interest says.

The new law “undermines law enforcement activities in Missouri, including valuable partnerships that federal agencies have developed,” the Justice Department wrote. “Under the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution, the state of Missouri has no power to repeal federal law.”

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CNN’s Christina Carrega and Peter Nickeas contributed to this story.