Important bills passed in the House this week.

This week, I was able to spend Wednesday and Thursday (March 26-27, 2025) in Jefferson City and witness the Missouri House pass two significant bills. HB 195, the Born Alive Act, sailed through with a 109-32 vote. It ensures that any child born alive during or after an abortion attempt enjoys the same rights, privileges, and protections as any other Missouri citizen or live-born infant. While I was there, HB 1175, which revives the Second Amendment Preservation Act, also cleared the House (100-51) and now heads to the Senate. This bill aims to safeguard Missourians’ Second Amendment rights, though it’s likely to hit snags in the Senate and face court challenges if it passes—much like its predecessor. Its heart is about protecting your gun rights. We shall see how it turns out.

Here’s a lesser-known tidbit: in 1833, the Supreme Court (Barron v. Baltimore) ruled the Bill of Rights was only applied to the federal government, not the states. The 14th Amendment changed that, with courts gradually applying those rights to states through a process called incorporation—think McDonald v. Chicago (2010) for the Second Amendment. But nothing in the U.S. Constitution, Missouri Constitution, or any statute explicitly locks this in; it’s all judicial interpretation, not codified law. This means that a future court could just as easily take this away. I think it's important to our future to look at codifying the Bill or Rights, as expressed in the US Constitution, into the Missouri Constitution to be certain that we do, indeed, enjoy those same rights as Missourians.