MO: Gun Rights Bill Passes Senate
Strong civil rights legislation was passed overwhelmingly by the Missouri State Senate yesterday. From KansasCity.com:
The Missouri Senate on Monday easily approved a wide-ranging firearms bill that would give householders and motorists new justification for using deadly force against intruders.
The final legislation, known as Senate Bill 62, would also repeal the requirement that Missouri residents receive permits from their sheriffs before buying handguns.
Other provisions would:
•Relax the concealed-weapons law to allow people with law enforcement training to skip the weapons-handling course that other applicants must complete to obtain concealed-gun permits.
•Allow courts to let police and sheriff’s departments sell confiscated weapons and keep the proceeds.
•Give the Missouri Highway Patrol access to records showing people’s treatment for mental illness. Use of the mental health information would be limited to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, which determines whether people are eligible to buy guns.
All those provisions have generated controversy in recent years.
But the bill was approved 29-3, as critics said the bill could have been much worse.
I have no problems with the last two provisions and Missouri residents should be pleased with the armed citizen ones and calling their House representatives to be sure they support the legislation as well. While the legislation isn’t completely “Stand Your Ground” in that it only provides for “Castle Doctrine,” it’s still a good bill. You are protected from criminal and civil prosecution if you use deadly force to protect your home, car, business, and even your backyard tent.
The Missouri House is expected to also pass the legislation. Now, as a non-resident, let me ask those of you who live there: How likely is it that your Governor will sign the bill?
16 Responses to “MO: Gun Rights Bill Passes Senate”
on 15 May 2007 at 7:52 am # Dan
as someone who lives in Missouri i can say with all honesty i think the governor would be glad to sign this bill.
Matt Blunt, son of Congressman Roy Blunt, is not only a Republican but a conservative one
on 15 May 2007 at 8:32 am # Jeffersonian
As another Missouri resident, I’m glad to hear this, too. If the Senate passed this, it will sail through the House, which has historically been far more willing to restore our Second Amendment rights. Thanks for the update, Jeff!
on 15 May 2007 at 8:58 am # Henry Bowman
This seems OK, except for the part that permits courts to lets “police and sheriff’s departments sell confiscated weapons and keep the proceeds.”. These sorts of provisions often lead to abuse. At least the cops cannot sell the weapons without a court’s permission. I can easily imagine the cops figuring out who the easy judges are, the way they do for search warrants, and going through him or her most of the time. And, of course, the judge just might want a piece of the action…
on 15 May 2007 at 10:27 am # mike
I live on the Kansas Side of the River, Burb of KC, and our legislature has just passed a much more liberal CCL law, Vetoed by our Leftist Gov., You may have heard about her dealings with the Greensburg Tornado, Disgusting, then her vetoe was overridden by our Legislature!!
Finally some Sanity!
on 15 May 2007 at 10:45 am # Jeff Soyer
Isn’t it interesting that despite the media trying to drum up public support for more gun control (after Va Tech) that in most state houses around the country (well, besides Illinois and California) the rights for gun owners to protect themselves continue to advance?
Notice also that most of the candidates vying for the Democratic nomination for president (aside from Kucinich) have remained silent in offering proposals for more national gun control. Not that they’re not for it, just that the mood of the country — again, even after the Va Tech tragedy — is not supportive and Dems are desperate to win in 2008. After they get in, and with a Dem controlled Congress, I’m sure we’ll be blanketed with legislation.
The leading Republican candidates aren’t much better although I’m happy that John McCain has come out firmly against any new gun control legislation.
AND. . . Fred Thompson looks great on the issue.
on 15 May 2007 at 11:56 am # ArizonaJazz
It is a complete conflict of interest to allow the police and sheriffs departments to sell confiscated weapons. They should be sold and the money should go to a different party without interest, orphans or something similar.
on 15 May 2007 at 12:21 pm # Rick C
John McCain could come out and state he favors an unrestricted right to own any kind of weapon and carry them anywhere, and I wouldn’t vote for him.
I agree with ArizonaJazz. That just encourages the cops to find reasons to confiscate weapons. Look how they drool over the idea of red light cameras…up until they aren’t allowed revenue sharing. Witness the case decided 2 years ago in NC for an example, where they lost the right to keep any of the revenue and, pending appeal, immediately stopped operating the cameras. (Of course, that was probably because they’d actually have to *pay out* money if they lost the appeal, which they did.)
As an aside, it disgusts me to see red light cameras here in Texas.
on 15 May 2007 at 12:46 pm # John Taylor
Alas, if only my home state of Illinois would enlighten themselves and pass such legislation. There’s a large, legal, gun ownership population on this side of the river who would love to be included in our rights as “guaranteed” (unless you live in Illinois) by the Second Amendment. Especially those of us in the vicinity of East St. Louis!
on 15 May 2007 at 1:19 pm # KCSteve
One thing they didn’t mention that’s in this bill (and why we’re happy with it despite not having the “anywhere you’re legally allowed to be” language” is the repeal of the PTA.
No, not the school thing, the Permit To Acquire. It’s an old Jim Crow law from around 1915 that requires you to go to your local Sherriff and get a $10 ‘Permit’ before you can purchase a concealable firearm. In addition to making sure the ‘wrong’ people don’t get pistols, it’s also a back door registration scheme.
August 29th (in MO new bills take effect August 28th) is going to be very busy at gunshops.
on 15 May 2007 at 2:35 pm # Flash Gordon
I’m sure happy that the Missouri legislature supports freedom for the show-me state. The Colorado legislature used to also, but the leftists took over in 2004, and significantly advanced their numbers and power in 2006. As a result, several anti-gun bills were introduced in the session just ended. Two passed and are now the law, both of which weaken the CCW law enacted in 2002 when the Republicans still controlled the legislature.
So far no state to adopt a “shall issue” CCW law has seen that law repealed. Colorado may be the first if the leftists remain in power. The NRA should pay close attention to Colorado.
Four (4) ultra-rich leftist Democrats and a leftist Supreme Court in a reapportionment case made this change possible. The state is now solid Democrat with the Dems holding the governor’s office and both houses of the legislature.
The re-apportionment case was pretty much single handedly accomplished by leftist Supreme Court Chief Justice Mary Mallarky, who declared herself to be a part of the General Assembly so that the State Constitutional requirement that apportionment be done only by the General Assembly could be gotten around. If the State Constitution had required that it be done only by the Governor, and since we had a Republican governor at the time, I feel certain she would have found a way to claim that she was the governor.
The re-apportionment litigation was the major deciding factor in the sea change that occurred because registered Republicans still outnumber registered Democrats in Colorado.
on 15 May 2007 at 3:32 pm # JeremyR
I worry about letting the cops sell the guns they confiscate, though. Whenever a police department directly benefits monetarily from doing something, they are going to be doing a lot more of that thing. There are a number of speed traps where I live, and I guess now those places will be after gun owners.
on 15 May 2007 at 3:33 pm # Chris
Gov. Blunt has been asking for a Castle Doctrine bill… I have no doubt that he’ll sign this one. It’s got to be (re) approved by the house, since the senate removed some language that the house put in… but that’s not going to be a problem either. At this point, it’s as close to a sure thing as possible.
All in all, we lost the ‘anywhere you can legally be’ language, but got everything else we wanted. Considering that a few days ago we were all listening to a pair of moronic senators filibustering the bill (Bray and Justice), I’m thrilled to have gotten what we did.
This is a very good version of castle doctrine, though our efforts to make it a solid ’stand your ground’ law partially failed. Still, if you read it carefully, the absolute defense this law will provide is applicable in nearly any situation.
The repeal of the ‘mommy may I’ PTA BS is _way_ overdue. I’ve been wanting a new snub nosed smith… seems I may have to pick one up soon
on 15 May 2007 at 5:19 pm # JFH
“The leading Republican candidates aren’t much better although I’m happy that John McCain has come out firmly against any new gun control legislation.”
Interestingly, both John McCain and Matt Blunt are both Naval Academy grads (We’re pretty much a pro-2nd Ammendment crowd, well, maybe Jimmy Carter excepted)
on 15 May 2007 at 11:06 pm # wrangler5
The Missouri House passed the bill this evening, 151-6 (it passed the Senate 29-3, but because of the Senate procedures those 3 were able to put a lot more hurt on the process than their numbers would suggest was appropriate) and WILL be signed by the Governor.
As I recall, the bit about police selling confiscated guns was to replace the old statutory requirement that the guns be destroyed. The thinking being that it would be better to see some return rather than just throw them away. But I see the concern that it might just encourage more confiscations.
As a practical matter, I suspect that a lot of confiscated guns just went home in police pockets, and that a lot more were worth more as melted steel than as guns. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see if abuses develop.
on 16 May 2007 at 2:40 pm # Lukas42
My homestate is finally leading the way for common sense that we Missourians supposedly posess.
The PD’s should do OK selling the guns but I will need to see more.
BTW MO’s logo is the “Show Me” state. That is why we must see the results before we believe something is bad or good.
on 17 May 2007 at 12:14 am # straightarrow
There is no doubt that abuse will follow. Just look at the track record in the St. Louis area over confiscated automobiles about 15 years back. The Post-Dispatch did a two week series on it.
Basically all the cop shops in the area decided it was a free pass to steal any car that caught their fancy.