Topeka ? A national gun control group is trying to bolster its legal and public case against a Kansas law challenging federal firearms regulations by arguing that it revives an old, discredited states-rights doctrine.

The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence’s linking of Kansas’ gun-rights policy to the rhetoric of Southern segregationists is particularly striking because Topeka is home to a national historic site commemorating the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision declaring segregated schools unconstitutional.

The Brady Campaign filed a federal lawsuit last week against a 2013 state law declaring that the federal government has no authority to regulate guns manufactured, sold and kept only in Kansas. Brady officials argue that it is an unconstitutional attempt to nullify federal laws.

Supporters of the law accuse the Brady group of political grandstanding.