{"id":89748,"date":"2023-02-01T05:57:02","date_gmt":"2023-02-01T11:57:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=89748"},"modified":"2023-02-01T05:57:02","modified_gmt":"2023-02-01T11:57:02","slug":"89748","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=89748","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

Move to restrict minors with guns gains traction in Missouri House<\/a><\/p>\n

The legislation is\u00a0House Bill 301<\/a>.<\/p>\n

JEFFERSON CITY \u2014 The gun-friendly Missouri House appears to be settling on one new firearm limit: restricting minors from possessing guns in public without adult supervision.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur state is pretty fanatical in our defense of the Second Amendment, and I certainly don\u2019t want to diminish that, but this kind of conduct is not what the Second Amendment was meant to protect,\u201d Roberts told the House Crime Prevention and Public Safety Committee on Thursday.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

A recommendation allowing for a special prosecutor for high-crime areas such as St. Louis has generated the most attention.<\/p>\n

But minors in possession of firearms became an issue following the state\u2019s passage of \u201cconstitutional carry\u201d legislation in 2016.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cIt does give the police the authority to make \u2014 take an enforcement action,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cRight now, they cannot do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sgt. Charles Wall, spokesman for the the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, previously told the Post-Dispatch that \u201cunder current state law, there is no minimum age to lawfully possess a firearm.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the department uses the status offense of \u201cbehavior injurious\u201d to \u201ctake minors into custody who are possessing firearms, absent any other criminal conduct.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wall said the \u201cbehavior injurious\u201d offense is not a criminal offense.<\/p>\n

But police are still allowed to \u201ctake minors into custody, seize firearms, notify the Juvenile Courts of the contact, and return minors to the custody of their parent(s)\/guardian(s).\u201d<\/p>\n

Wall said that Missouri\u2019s constitutional carry law that took effect Jan. 1, 2017, \u201celiminated the requirement for a concealed carry permit and allowed for open carry in the state.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prior to that, he said, \u201cindividuals needed a valid conceal carry permit in order to conceal a firearm on their person, and there was an age restriction on this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roberts said the situation was unacceptable.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s happening in some cities right now, a juvenile in possession of a firearm, even if they\u2019re engaged in conduct that is inherently dangerous, the law enforcement has a limited amount of ability to deal with that,\u201d Roberts said.<\/p>\n

Rep. Brad Banderman, R-St. Clair, during another hearing of the House Crime Prevention and Public Safety Committee on Monday, didn\u2019t appear to know the current law.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not against the law, sir … for a 10-year-old kid to walk around with a \u2014 with a pistol in their pants?\u201d Banderman asked.<\/p>\n

Chris Hinckley, chief warrant officer for the St. Louis Circuit Attorney\u2019s Office, responded, \u201cThey take the gun, and they bring them home, and they tell the parent that they\u2019re going to cite the parent for endangering and they give the firearm back.\u201d<\/p>\n

The legislation says it is unlawful for a person to knowingly possess a firearm if \u201csuch 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The legislation is House Bill 301.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Move to restrict minors with guns gains traction in Missouri House The legislation is\u00a0House Bill 301. JEFFERSON CITY \u2014 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, … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-89748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-rkba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=89748"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89748\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":89749,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89748\/revisions\/89749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=89748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=89748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=89748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}