Dear Editor:
The News Tribune is to be commended for providing (May 4) a short history of the concept of nullification in American politics. It was an interesting account, but the notion that a state could nullify federal law was settled by the Civil War. The proponents of nullification lost.
Today Missouri Republicans in both the House and Senate are acting as if nullification is still an open issue. They are about to pass a bill nullifying federal gun laws, e.g., laws providing for taxing, registering and tracking guns. Passing such a law shows that Missouri Republican legislators are ignorant of the U.S. Constitution (or disrespectful of it) and, consequently, are unfit for office.
Article VI of the U.S. Constitution provides: "This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof ..., shall be the supreme law of the land; and Judges in every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding."
In view of this, federal gun laws are supreme with respect to any constitution or laws of any state. That is what "We the people of the United States" decided in 1788 when the Constitution was officially ratified. A great Civil War later settled the point that the Constitution means what it says.
The actions of Missouri Republican legislators in trying to repudiate the settled authority of our Constitution shows them to be ignorant of their responsibilities as legislators and unworthy of their offices.