Missouri has some of nation’s weakest gun laws. Here’s how laws changed over 200 years - Kansas City Star

Missouri’s gun laws have evolved over the last two centuries, from before its statehood to the present day.

Those changes, especially in recent years, have largely been toward the deregulation of firearms. Missouri’s gun laws consistently rank among the weakest in the country.

1818: Before Missouri was established as a state and just a portion of the Louisiana Purchase territory, the first weapons law was established for the area in 1818, which prohibited enslaved people from possessing guns, ammunition, clubs and other weapons while allowing whites to take guns from them.

1833: Tensions between Jackson County residents and Mormons, who claimed the county land as sacred, escalated when a violent mob drove members of the religion out of the area in 1833. Lilburn Boggs, the Missouri governor at the time, endorsed the violence and issued an extermination order to expel all Mormons by any means necessary, including lethal force.

1875: After the Civil War, Missouri became a hotbed for pro-Confederate guerilla warfare, post-war “lawlessness” and vigilantism in 1875. As a result, the state banned concealed weapons of all kinds, in all places. This ban, which was specifically enforced on people freed from slavery and thwart their ability to protect themselves, stayed in place for the next 128 years.

1945: Missouri revised its state constitution to explicitly ban all concealed weapons in 1945. The clause addressing concealed carry previously read: “But nothing herein contained is intended to justify the practice of wearing concealed weapons.” The language was updated to say: ”This shall not justify the wearing of concealed weapons.”

1977: Velma Gardner, a Kansas City resident, shot and killed her husband in the driveway of their home, as he attempted to hit her with his car. Gardner was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to one year in prison. After this case, the courts decided that people may turn to lethal force only to defend themselves inside their homes, but they have a duty to retreat if they are outside their home.

1999: A ballot measure called Proposition B in 1999 would have brought back concealed carry to Missouri, but voters in the state’s urban areas defeated it.

2003: Concealed carry returns to Missouri after a 128-year ban. Eighty-four of Missouri’s 162 representatives sponsored the bill. The state legislature overturned the ban, but kept in place some restrictions on who can get a concealed carry permit: they must be at least 23 years old, submit an application through their local sheriff’s department and carrying a concealed weapon was banned in certain places.

A challenge to this law was brought to the Missouri Supreme Court on the basis that the state’s constitution was amended to ban concealed weapons. However, the court ruled that the constitution does not explicitly forbid them and state lawmakers have the authority to decide who carries them and under what circumstances. The law stayed in place.

2006: The Missouri legislature passes the Castle Doctrine in 2006, which makes it legal for people to use lethal force to defend their entire property, as long as they occupy that property. The doctrine still maintains a duty to retreat.

2007: The state does away with its permit-to-purchase handgun law in 2007, which was established in 1921. Permit to purchase is no longer required to buy a firearm.

2016: Stand Your Ground, which first entered the national scene in 2005 when the Florida legislature passed the first law of its kind, and permitless concealed carry became law in Missouri. Stand Your Ground eliminates the Castle Doctrine’s duty to retreat.

At this point in time, Missourians can purchase a gun without a permit, carry concealed firearms in most places without a permit and claim immunity in armed confrontations.

2021: After trying and failing to pass a federal gun law nullification bill in 2017 after then-Gov. Jay Nixon vetoed it, the Missouri General Assembly passed the Second Amendment Preservation Act in 2021.

The new law establishes that state firearm laws trump federal ones, going as far as penalizing local law enforcement $50,000 per infraction if they are found to be working with federal agencies like the ATF and the FBI on gun-related crimes. The bill is one of the final acts of nearly complete gun deregulation.

source: https://www.kansascity.com/news/state/missouri/gun-violence-missouri/article255295551.html

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