Extreme Missouri gun laws are about political points, not stopping our violence crisis

Last Friday, Missouri lawmakers officially ended this year’s legislative session. Not unlike other years, our legislators were in a race to the bottom — pushing extreme, dangerous bills that would further weaken our public safety laws and exacerbate our state’s gun violence crisis. But thanks to tireless activism by public safety experts, law enforcement and community partners, the legislature adjourned without passing a reckless gun bill.

Our state is facing a clear and devastating gun violence crisis: In an average year, 1,288 people die and 2,584 people are wounded by guns in our state. Missouri has the fifth-highest rate of gun deaths in the country and some of the weakest gun laws — but instead of working on actually addressing the gun violence crisis and trying to save lives, our lawmakers prioritized dangerous and extreme legislation to weaken some of the few public safety measures we have left.

They tried not just once, but multiple times to pass dangerous policies such as S.B. 666, aptly referred to by opponents as the “Make Murder Legal Act,” which would have expanded our state’s already dangerous “Shoot First” law, which lets people use deadly force as the first option rather than the last, even when they can clearly and safely walk away.

And they once again introduced and debated bills such as S.B. 752, which would have forced public college campuses to allow people to carry concealed guns onto their grounds. It would also let people carry hidden, loaded guns around children at private K-12 schools, as well as into day cares, bars, hospitals and polling places. And H.B. 1481 would have allowed more school personnel to carry concealed firearms inside Missouri K-12 schools.

I was there in the room where these bills were being discussed. I heard our lawmakers try to justify their reasoning for advancing bills that clearly would have weakened public safety laws and put our communities in danger. I stood up and made my voice heard, providing testimony alongside other Moms Demand Action volunteers and public safety advocates from across the state, including law enforcement officers, who stood with us and urged our lawmakers not to pass these bills. And our voices stopped these bills in their tracks.

While we’re lucky and grateful that none of these policies made it across the finish line this year, it’s clear that our lawmakers are competing to see who can be the most extreme when it comes to making our state a more dangerous place. This isn’t the first time our leaders have tried to strip away gun safety protections. Over the past several years, legislators have been systematically deregulating public safety and stripping away measures that protect Missouri communities from gun violence.

Our communities are bearing the toll of our state’s gun violence crisis, yet our lawmakers continue to pass dangerous legislation like permitless carry and 2021’s law to unconstitutionally nullify federal gun laws — policies that law enforcement continues to say are only making it harder for them to keep us safe. In fact, nearly 60 police chiefs from across our state have joined a lawsuit challenging this law.

It’s alarming and upsetting. There’s no reason for our state to have one of the highest rates of gun deaths in the country. There’s no reason for our lawmakers to continue to push these policies that do nothing to actually address gun violence and will only put more lives in danger to gain some cheap political points.

Research shows that strong gun laws save lives, and states with weaker gun safety laws experience higher levels of gun violence. So why do our lawmakers continue to weaken gun safety measures? Who are these extreme gun bills for? They’re running a losing race to the bottom — and it’s only hurting our communities and the people they are elected to represent.

Even though this year’s legislative session is over and these bills didn’t pass, the work to end gun violence continues. I’ll keep showing up, making my voice heard and fighting against any measures that threaten the safety of Missouri communities. And we’ll keep pushing for our lawmakers to do their jobs and work to pass bills that will reduce gun violence in the next legislative session.