Concealed carry on buses and rail in Missouri: public safety or danger zone? | Opinion

You almost have to admire the persistence.

When gun-loving Missouri Republicans don’t succeed in their first or second attempts at making life more dangerous for the state’s bus and rail riders, you can be sure they will try, try again.

They’re trying again.

The Missouri House last week passed a bill that would allow passengers to carry concealed guns with them on public transit.

Right now that’s illegal. It ought to stay that way.

But the bill’s backers say Missouri gun owners ought to be able to practice their Second Amendment rights on a crowded bus, the better to protect themselves if violence breaks out.

It doesn’t seem to occur to them that putting guns on a bus will actually make it more likely that violence will break out.

“It’s about time that we allow those people who use public transportation to exercise the same rights as everyone else in our state,” said state Rep. Tim Taylor, a Bunceton Republican who sponsored the bill.

This is, of course, the latest in a series of attempts by Show-Me State conservatives to open up public transit to deadly firearms, including efforts in 2019, 2021 and 2024. That last push was scrapped, you’ll recall, after the deadly shooting at the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl celebration last year. Bad timing, apparently.

Now gun advocates are trying again.

There is just one problem: The people who run Missouri’s public transportation systems really don’t want to deal with the problem of gun violence.

‘Imminent danger for passengers’

“The legislation must be derailed for the overall safety and well-being of transit riders, operators and communities across the state,” the Missouri Public Transit Association said in a statement it sent Monday.

MPTA represents transit systems across the state, including the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority and KC Streetcar Authority, as well as a bunch of smaller outfits, including OATS Transit, which provides services in 87 mostly rural counties.

So the organization understands the politics at play in this deep-red state. Taylor’s bill “is intended to improve safety and protect Second Amendment rights” the organization acknowledged in the statement.

The MPTA just disagrees — sensibly — with the notion that arming passengers will make public transit safer.

“Just like on airplanes and Amtrak — where guns are not allowed — public transit vehicles are enclosed, moving environments that pose imminent danger for passengers and operators should an accidental discharge or planned attack occur,” MPTA said.

“Safety,” the organization said, “is paramount.”

It should be, anyway.

‘Chilling effect’ even on gun owners

Allowing concealed guns on a city bus wouldn’t just make riders and drivers less safe. It might also erode the long-term survival of the systems that help so many of us get from place to another.

A February study by the Institute of Government and Public Affairs at the University of Illinois found a “chilling effect” on ridership when people are forced to consider the possibility of guns on public transit. Even gun owners didn’t much like the idea.

“When the presence of firearms becomes salient,” the researchers wrote, “fewer people are willing to take public transit.”

No wonder the MTPA is opposed to the Missouri bill.

Whatever happens in Jefferson City, though, it’s possible — even likely — we’ll see concealed carry on buses and light rail before long. A federal judge last year struck down Illinois’ public transit ban on concealed firearms. The case is now in the U.S. Court of Appeals, and could be headed to the gun-friendly Supreme Court before it’s all over.

There is no reason to rush that day, though. For safety’s sake, let’s hope the Missouri bill fails.