JEFFERSON CITY — The gun-friendly Missouri home appears to be settling on a new firearm limit: Banning underage gun ownership in public without adult supervision.
The boundary was included in wide-ranging crime legislation by Rep. Lane Roberts, R-Joplin, on the recommendation of a bipartisan task force appointed by House Speaker Dean Plocher, R-Des Peres.
“Our state is pretty fanatical about defending the Second Amendment, and I certainly don’t want to belittle that, but that kind of behavior is not what the Second Amendment was meant to protect,” Roberts told the House Crime Prevention and Public Safety Committee on Thursday.
The working group, composed of three Republicans and three Democrats, unanimously recommended legislation to prevent minors from carrying guns in public, as well as several other public safety measures.
Democrats on the podium included Reps. Marlon Anderson and Donna Baringer of St. Louis and Robert Sauls of Independence. Republicans included Roberts, as well as Representatives Ron Copeland of Salem and John Black of Marshfield.
A recommendation that would create a special prosecutor for high-crime areas like St. Louis has garnered the most attention.
However, underage gun ownership became an issue after the state passed constitutional carry legislation in 2016.
“It gives the police the power to take enforcement action,” Roberts said. “Right now they can’t do that.”
Sergeant Charles Wall, spokesman for the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, previously told Post-Dispatch that “under applicable state law, there is no minimum age for lawful possession of a firearm.”
He said the department uses the conduct violation status violation to “detain minors who possess firearms in the absence of other criminal conduct.”
Wall said the “conduct abusive” offense was not a felony.
However, police are still allowed to “take minors into custody, confiscate firearms, notify juvenile courts of contact and return minors to the care of their parents/guardians.”
Wall said that Missouri’s constitutional carry law, which went into effect on January 1, 2017, “eliminated the requirement for a concealed carry permit and permitted open carry in the state.”
Previously, he said, “individuals needed a valid concealed carry permit to conceal a firearm and there was an age restriction for that.”
Roberts said the situation was unacceptable.
“What’s happening in some cities right now, a juvenile in possession of a firearm, even if engaging in inherently dangerous behavior, law enforcement has limited ability to deal with,” Roberts said.
Rep. Brad Banderman, R-St. Clair appeared ignorant of the law during another House Crime Prevention and Public Safety Committee hearing on Monday.
“It’s not against the law, sir… for a 10-year-old kid to be walking around with a — with a gun down his pants?” Bandermann asked.
Chris Hinckley, Chief Warrant Officer of the St. Louis Attorney’s Office, replied, “They take the gun and they take it home, and they tell the parent that they’re going to report the parent on endangerment and they put the gun on the parent.”
The legislation states that it is unlawful for a person to knowingly possess a firearm if “such person is under eighteen years of age, is on public property, is unaccompanied by an adult of twenty-one years of age or older, and does not own a firearm to the extent permitted by law.”
Joe Jerek, spokesman for the Missouri Department of Conservation, said that currently anyone ages 11 and older can hunt alone if they successfully complete a hunter training course.
The legislation is House Bill 301.
