Missouri Gov. Mike Parson suspends concealed carry late penalties, defends no stay at home order

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson issued an executive order Thursday suspending late penalties for concealed carry license renewals, a measure he said would promote health and social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“These people should not be penalized for staying home like they’ve been asked to,” Parson said at his daily afternoon news conference.

The order, he added, would also free up local law enforcement officers from administrative tasks.

One Democratic lawmaker lambasted Parson for making concealed carry renewals a priority in the middle of a pandemic.

“If the governor had issued his executive order on conceal-carry permits a day earlier, I would have thought it was a bad April Fools’ Day joke,” House Minority Leader Crystal Quade, D-Springfield, said in a statement. “The fact that the governor thinks this is a priority is beyond disappointing and gives further ammunition to critics who say he isn’t doing what needs to be done to stop the spread of COVID-19 in Missouri.”

Though Parson mandated social distancing with an executive order on March 21, he remains one of the few U.S. governors who has not issued a statewide stay-at-home order.

Parson said Thursday that his social distancing order is sufficient said that his administration continues to reevaluate the situation daily.

He has said that the directive, which expires April 6, could be extended for 30 to 60 days.

Parson once again highlighted the difference in rural and urban counties in explaining his decision not to issue the stay-at-home directive.

“It’s very difficult sometimes to just put a blanket order in place,” he said.

Local governments have taken matters into their own hands and issued stay at home orders for their own cities and counties. Kansas City and St. Louis both have stay at home directives in place.

This story was originally published April 2, 2020 at 4:26 PM.