I’m just wondering when the Missouri Legislature is going to get serious about affording Missouri citizens complete Second Amendment rights.
Sure, the legislators have made strides, essentially abolishing the requirement for conceal-carry permits with the triumph of Senate Bill 656 in 2016, over the veto of former Gov. Jay Nixon.
In the same stroke, they affirmed and expanded Stand Your Ground and Castle Doctrine privileges to include a person’s vehicle. Sometimes, a man’s 4-by-4 is his castle.
These are all steps in the right direction (and I do mean right) – unfettered access to the weapons of our choice pretty much any place and any time we want.
So what’s with these sissy prohibitions about bringing guns into the state Capitol?
Recently I read a story in the Missouri Times, an on-line news outlet that covers the Legislature, about signs posted on the doors of the Capitol – the People’s House! – that said it still would be against the rules for visitors to carry in the halls, meeting rooms and visitor galleries of the House of Representatives and Senate.
Of course, that just applies to visitors. Senators and representatives can and do carry.
This is an outrage and an affront to freedom, liberty and equality.
Every year, the Legislature postures and struts its alleged fidelity to the principles of freedom embodied in our God-given natural right to pack heat.
The National Rifle Association lobbyist writes the latest bill to get rid of whatever feeble restrictions might remain in Missouri, and a hundred eager hands go up from lawmakers, straining like kindergarteners to be called on and honored to be The One to sponsor the bill for the NRA.
And make no mistake, there have been triumphs. First, conceal-carry was passed even after a statewide vote of the people said they didn’t want it.
Of course, the vast majority of those
anti-votes came from a few “urban”
counties, but a vaster majority of the other counties – a sort of electoral college, if you look at it that way – wanted it. So, the legislators figured all those counties ought not to be abridged by a few clustered packs of sniveling city dwellers and suburbanites who wouldn’t know a handgun from a plumb bob.
Then, after that battle was won, Senate Bill 656 did away not only with permits, but also with the bothersome training – a whole eight hours – that went along with them. Let freedom plink!
Just not in the galleries of the House or Senate.
Suppose a firefight breaks out on the Senate or House floor. The visitors in the gallery would be sitting ducks, even though they would have the higher ground. How are they supposed to protect themselves?
There is at least one freedom-loving brand new representative who sees this inequity for what it is. That would be state Rep. Nick Schroer (R-O’Fallon), a St. Charles County rep who pre-filed House Bill 96 before he had even been sworn in this year.
Schroer’s bill would make business owners who post “No guns allowed” signs on their doors responsible for the safety of gun owners forced to leave their pieces outside. Should something happen to them inside that might have been prevented by their iron, they could sue the prissy pants off those who posted the signs.
So far, the bill has been read but not assigned to a calendar, which doesn’t bode well for its chances this session. Given the victory and installation of Gov. Eric “Machine Gun” Greitens, I can’t figure out how Schroer’s bill hasn’t been moved to the top of the heap.
My guess is Rep. Schroer would see the hypocrisy of not allowing citizens to carry inside the People’s House. Or Senate.
State Rep. Nick Marshall, a Platte County Republican, also saw the hypocrisy. He posted a sign on his office door that said any constituent who had been denied entry into the Capitol, or rather, told to leave a firearm outside, could come by his office and borrow one.
Now, whether Marshall had the juice to get a gun-borrowing constituent into the House chamber is another matter.
I don’t understand why such gun-toting and gun-loving legislators do not want guns other than their own inside the People’s House. It seems like they’re putting themselves on a pedestal above the people they are supposed to serve. By allowing themselves to carry inside the chambers, they are granting themselves more rights and freedoms than the common folk.
This is not right. When these representatives vote to ease gun restrictions elsewhere in Missouri, they ought to include their own place of business. If Schroer’s bill ever passes, the whole bunch might find themselves getting sued if one of them discharges his piece in session and wings a spectator.
Would serve them right, too. Good for the goose, good for the gander.
