JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Missouri Governor Mike Parson is weighing in on proposed St. Louis and Kansas City gun bans. Mayor Tishaura Jones and other St. Louis leaders are pushing for legislation to prohibit “military-grade weapons” on city streets. It would make it a crime for “insurrectionists” and those convicted of hate crimes to possess firearms.
“I think you have to be very careful to stay in your lanes. Cities can’t just go out there and do what they want to do, and when there is a constitutional issue to it, or state legislature do it, they can’t supersede that. Just like we can’t supersede the federal government,” said Gov. Parson. “Whether you like it or not, when the law is passed, you’ve got to obey the law, is the way I look at it, and there are no exceptions.”
Mayor Tishaura Jones announced the wide-ranging legislation last week, noting support from several members of the Board of Aldermen. The board could begin considering the measure at its next meeting, on Sept. 15.
Missouri’s attorney general is also warning that such a law would violate the state constitution. Bailey wrote in a letter to Jones that he will “resist any effort to infringe on the right of the people of Missouri to keep and bear arms.”
Two gun ordinances are advancing in Kansas City. The first would ban those 18 and younger from buying bullets without parental consent. The second bans “switches,” which are used to modify handguns into automatic ones.
St. Louis is annually among the cities with the nation’s highest homicide rates. City leaders have been trying for years to persuade Missouri’s Republican-led Legislature to enact stricter gun laws, but without success. The state has among the most lenient gun laws in the nation.
A Missouri law adopted in 2017 allows people to carry concealed guns in public without having to go through a background check or get a permit.