The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) recently reached out to Camden County officials to get zoning information so that they could finish four people's applications to open gun stores. But Camden County won't cooperate with the ATF — they say the bureau itself is "unconstitutional."
Ike Skelton, the Camden County Presiding Commissioner, is one of the six officials fighting the ATF. He tells KMOX that the ATF is an infringement of the Second Amendment.
"If you read the Constitution as the freedom and liberty document that it is, you can only say that 'shall not be infringed' means just that," Skelton said. "And 'infringed' is a pretty small thing that means to be messed with at all, or to be limited or what have you, right. So if you read it as a liberty loving document that the Constitution is, that's the only way you can interpret that clause."
The ATF, according to its website, "protects our communities from violent criminals, criminal organizations, the illegal use and trafficking of firearms, the illegal use and storage of explosives, acts of arson and bombings, acts of terrorism and the illegal diversion of alcohol and tobacco products."
That definition doesn't budge Skelton's views at all. "Any law that restricts or infringes our right to keep and bear arms is unconstitutional at the federal level, period," he said.
Skelton explained the effort against ATF began because the bureau asked about the zoning for a gun store that was already operating and in business. They also wanted to make sure the store had its proper licenses, like a Federal Firearms License (FFL) — something Skelton believes is illegal, too. He said he wouldn't help the ATF get the information they requested.
"This is what anti-commandeering is about. That is why Missouri has the Second Amendment Preservation Act," Skelton said. "So that the federal government, if they want to come and try to enforce what I believe, and many believe are illegal laws, they're unconstitutional laws, then they have to come down and do it themselves."
The Second Amendment Protection Act (SAPA) was overturned in March by a judge in Missouri after it was deemed unconstitutional. The law banned police from enforcing federal gun laws that were stricter than state gun laws.
Skelton isn't the only one in his family who's taken issue with federal gun regulations. His brother, James Skelton, is the owner and operator of a gun shop in Osage Beach. He was arrested in 2021 for illegally selling guns to undercover agents from the ATF — that means failing to conduct background checks and not recording people's basic personal information. He did, however, have an FFL.
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