A bill that would make it a crime for duly elected representatives and senators to propose legislation that would regulate firearms has been introduced in the Missouri House. State Republican Rep. Mike Leara introduced HB 633 in response to federal and state efforts to curb gun violence through gun control measures.

The bill is short, to the point, and says

“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.”





According to Talking Points Memo, Leara doubts his bill will pass but says he “filed HB 633 as a matter of principle and as a statement in defense of the Second Amendment rights of all Missourians. 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.”

Gun violence has been at the forefront of the public mind since the Sandy Hook mass shooting in December that claimed the lives of twenty children and six teachers. Other mass shootings such as the theater massacre in Aurora, Colorado and the mass shooting in Wisconsin at a Sikh temple have driven many states and the federal government to place gun violence at the top of the priority list. President Obama has kept gun violence in the public mind by including the subject in both his Inauguration and State of the Union addresses and has called on Congress to pass stronger background check laws along with an assault weapons ban and a ban on high capacity magazines.

Republican lawmakers have made it clear that they oppose any gun control measure, claiming that such measures infringe on Second Amendment rights, even though the kind of measures Democrats want to put in place do not infringe on second amendment rights. No one is going to have their gun taken away. Democrats simply want background checks for all gun purchases across the board and restrictions on magazine size to prevent the kinds of mass shootings that have been horrifying Americans the last few years.

Leara’s bill blatantly attempts to ban any legislator from making a law designed to regulate guns and keep people safe. It’s the kind of bill that the National Rifle Association dreams of making law in all fifty states. If such legislation were to become law despite the high odds it has of passing it would most certainly open the door to similar legislation Republicans could introduce to ban lawmakers from proposing bills designed to deal with topics such as climate change, civil rights, voting rights, tax increases, banking and corporate regulation and any other issue where Republicans disagree with Democrats. And Republicans would love nothing more than to strangle government to death by passing laws to make it illegal to propose bills conservatives hate.