Move to restrict minors with guns gains traction in Missouri House

The legislation is House Bill 301.

JEFFERSON CITY — The gun-friendly Missouri House appears to be settling on one new firearm limit: restricting minors from possessing guns in public without adult supervision.

The limit was included in wide-ranging crime legislation by Rep. Lane Roberts, R-Joplin, following a recommendation by a bipartisan working group appointed by House Speaker Dean Plocher, R-Des Peres.

“Our state is pretty fanatical in our defense of the Second Amendment, and I certainly don’t want to diminish that, but this kind of conduct is not what the Second Amendment was meant to protect,” Roberts told the House Crime Prevention and Public Safety Committee on Thursday.

The working group, made up of three Republicans and three Democrats, unanimously recommended legislation to prevent minors from carrying guns in public, along with several other measures aimed at public safety.

Democrats on the panel included Reps. Marlon Anderson and Donna Baringer of St. Louis, and Robert Sauls of Independence. Republicans included Roberts, as well as Reps. Ron Copeland of Salem and John Black of Marshfield.

A recommendation allowing for a special prosecutor for high-crime areas such as St. Louis has generated the most attention.

But minors in possession of firearms became an issue following the state’s passage of “constitutional carry” legislation in 2016.

“It does give the police the authority to make — take an enforcement action,” Roberts said. “Right now, they cannot do that.”

Sgt. Charles Wall, spokesman for the the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, previously told the Post-Dispatch that “under current state law, there is no minimum age to lawfully possess a firearm.”

He said the department uses the status offense of “behavior injurious” to “take minors into custody who are possessing firearms, absent any other criminal conduct.”

Wall said the “behavior injurious” offense is not a criminal offense.

But police are still allowed to “take minors into custody, seize firearms, notify the Juvenile Courts of the contact, and return minors to the custody of their parent(s)/guardian(s).”

Wall said that Missouri’s constitutional carry law that took effect Jan. 1, 2017, “eliminated the requirement for a concealed carry permit and allowed for open carry in the state.”

Prior to that, he said, “individuals needed a valid conceal carry permit in order to conceal a firearm on their person, and there was an age restriction on this.”

Roberts said the situation was unacceptable.

“What’s happening in some cities right now, a juvenile in possession of a firearm, even if they’re engaged in conduct that is inherently dangerous, the law enforcement has a limited amount of ability to deal with that,” Roberts said.

Rep. Brad Banderman, R-St. Clair, during another hearing of the House Crime Prevention and Public Safety Committee on Monday, didn’t appear to know the current law.

“It’s not against the law, sir … for a 10-year-old kid to walk around with a — with a pistol in their pants?” Banderman asked.

Chris Hinckley, chief warrant officer for the St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office, responded, “They take the gun, and they bring them home, and they tell the parent that they’re going to cite the parent for endangering and they give the firearm back.”

The legislation says it is unlawful for a person to knowingly possess a firearm if “such person is under eighteen years of age, is on public property, is not accompanied by an adult twenty-one years of age or older, and is not possessing the firearm as otherwise allowed by law.”

Joe Jerek, spokesman for the Missouri Department of Conservation, said anyone 11 or older is currently allowed to hunt by themselves if they successfully complete a hunter education class.

The legislation is House Bill 301.