Concealed weapons mirroring vote
posted 31 May 2004
By David A. Lieb
The Associated Press
Jefferson City This isn't the way most people figured it would occur. But finally, it appears, the will of the people is being carried out when it comes to concealed guns.
The reality that has surfaced following a confusing Missouri Supreme Court ruling is that residents in most rural areas now can get concealed-gun permits, and residents in Missouri's biggest urban areas cannot. (Maybe not issued from their county, but they can get them from out of State.)
That's almost precisely the way the votes broke down in a 1999 referendum on concealed guns.
The proposal passed in 104 counties and failed in 10 others plus the city of St. Louis. But the 11 jurisdictions where it failed had just enough votes to overcome the counties where it passed. The final statewide percentage: 48 percent for it, 52 percent against it.
Last year, state legislators reversed the outcome of the 1999 election, overriding Gov. Bob Holden's veto of a bill legalizing concealed-gun permits for certain adults. The Supreme Court upheld the essence of the law Feb. 26, but declared the funding mechanism could be unconstitutional in some counties.
In the three months following that ruling, most rural counties have begun taking applications for permits. Yet the two biggest urban areas St. Louis and Kansas City still refuse to do so.
As of Tuesday, at least 93 counties will be accepting concealed-gun permits, (All Counties must honor permits. They may not be accepting applications, but they MUST honor CCW permits from out of state if necessary.) according to figures compiled by the Missouri Highway Patrol, a concealed-guns advocate and The Associated Press.
Based on 2000 census figures, that means about 46 percent of Missourians will live in counties where concealed-gun permits are available, and 54 percent will live in counties where they are not .(You may have to go out of state to get one but permits are available and honored in all counties)
Those percentages are remarkably similar to the results of the 1999 referendum.
"In a rough sort of way, I suppose it is" representative of the will of the people, said Senate President Pro Tem Peter Kinder.
Legislators could have done something about Missouri's varying availability of concealed-gun permits during their session that ended May 14. After the Supreme Court ruling, concealed-guns supporters introduced bills attempting to fix the law's funding flaw a move that could have wiped away the main excuse for counties not implementing the law. (The law HAS been implemented, just some stubborn, willful Sheriff that do not want to enforce laws they don't like are not taking applications for a permit.)
But after Holden threatened to veto the bill, Kinder and House Speaker Catherine Hanaway moved the funding-fix legislation to the end of their priority lists.
When the session ended, 30 counties and the city of St. Louis still were not accepting concealed-gun permits. That number is expected to decline to 21 by Tuesday and to dwindle further during the rest of June.
Ultimately, "I think we're going to come down to a battle with six, seven or eight counties," said Tim Oliver, a Boone County firearms trainer who tracks counties accepting concealed-gun permits online at
www.learntocarry.com.
One of those counties is Jackson County, which in the February Supreme Court ruling was exempted from having to follow the law (Yes, they still have to follow the law, they just are not taking applications for permits.) after showing it would impose an illegal, unfunded state mandate in that county.
Another of those counties is St. Louis County, which has filed a lawsuit seeking a similar cost-grounds exemption. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for June 8.
With neither any legislation nor a court case on the fast track to settle the disparity, Missouri could continue in its current state of affairs for some time.
"I would prefer to have a uniform state law," Kinder said. But until a new legislature and governor "can work out the anomaly in that funding, we're doing as we do on many tough issues we're muddling through."
