Another Gun Threat to Missouri Students

 

by Pa Rock

Missouri Citizen Journalist

It has been a week of duck-and-cover for students in Missouri schools.    This past Monday a 19-year-old gunman armed with an AR-15 assault weapon and plenty of ammunition forced his way into a St. Louis high school where he killed a student and a teacher and injured seven others.  That was followed by another incident on Friday when a lone gunman, also armed with an AR-15,  as well as a handgun and plenty of ammunition, was arrested near the small town of Annapolis in Iron County (southeast of St. Louis) when he threatened to shoot a school bus that was transporting children home from school.

According to news reports the driver of the school bus noticed an armed individual wearing camouflage clothing standing near a place where he normally drops off children.   The driver was concerned enough that he chose to drive by the bus stop without stopping.  The local police department and the county sheriff's office were notified, and the police chief arrived on scene first and arrested the man with the guns.  Witnesses said that he had threatened to shoot the bus.

The potential shooter was arrested and charged with "several" felonies, although the specifics of the charges have yet to be released to the public.    It is also not currently known how many children were on the school bus at the time of the incident.

One thing is clear, however:  quick thinking by the school bus driver and quick action by law enforcement may have averted a second school tragedy in Missouri in less than a week.

Gun laws in Missouri languish somewhere between weak and non-existent. Anyone aged nineteen or older can legally carry a gun - openly or concealed - without a permit or training, and the state recognizes concealed weapons permits that were issued by other states.   In 2021, the GOP controlled state legislature of Missouri passed, and GOP Governor Parson signed, one of those spurious state laws that claim to override any federal mandate that they interpret as being in opposition to the Second Amendment.  That law, which is titled the "Second Amendment Protection Act" mandates that "all federal acts, laws, executive orders, administrative orders, and regulations, whether past, present, or future, that infringe on the people's right to keep and bear ams as guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution (and Article 1, Section 23 of the Missouri Constitution) must be invalid in this state."

But in its rush to protect the rights of citizens to own guns, the state government of Missouri has been notoriously lax in passing legislation that would protect the rights of individuals to live their lives without being shot.  The state has no "red flag" laws which would give police authority to temporarily remove weapons from a person who has been determined to be mentally unfit to possess them.

Legal challenges to the Second Amendment Protection Act are being brought by the police departments of St. Louis and Kansas City, and the matter of a state trying to usurp federal authority will ultimately be decided in the courts.  But for today, at this moment in time, the state of Missouri is mired in gun lunacy and our children remain highly vulnerable targets of well-armed, unstable people.

The "show-me" state is showing the world it values guns more than children.

Shame on us!