by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist
There is no shortage of interest in the Missouri legislature when it comes to overseeing efforts to control crime in the city of St. Louis, a traditional boogeyman that rural white politicians have long used to instill racial panic in their agrarian voting base back home. They want their voters to see crime as being primarily based in race – the other guy’s race – and an urban issue. The state’s Republican legislators draw the line, however, when it comes to doing anything which would help St Louis law enforcement agencies in their constant struggle to control crime in the city.
Yesterday the Republican-controlled Missouri House of Representatives passed a major piece of legislation which had been drafted primarily to address crime in the city of St Louis. That bill, as originally written, included a provision that would have banned unsupervised children from openly carrying firearms on public land in the state of Missouri. The provision had been included based on a request from St. Louis Police Department. The exact wording had been drafted by a bipartisan committee of three Republicans and three Democrats.
Basically, anyone can currently open-carry in Missouri, and some Republicans legislators were unhappy that limitations were about to be put in place which would affect some children, so that language was pulled. But later it was added back in as an amendment.
Yesterday, as the bill was being debated in the Missouri House, there was a motion and vote to reject that particular amendment – and the House voted 104 to 39 to keep allowing unsupervised children to continue openly carrying guns on public lands. It was primarily a party-line vote with all but one of the state’s GOP legislators voting against the common sense amendment and in favor of unsupervised children’s “rights” to openly carry firearms.
Yesterday the Republican-controlled Missouri House of Representatives passed a major piece of legislation which had been drafted primarily to address crime in the city of St Louis. That bill, as originally written, included a provision that would have banned unsupervised children from openly carrying firearms on public land in the state of Missouri. The provision had been included based on a request from St. Louis Police Department. The exact wording had been drafted by a bipartisan committee of three Republicans and three Democrats.
Basically, anyone can currently open-carry in Missouri, and some Republicans legislators were unhappy that limitations were about to be put in place which would affect some children, so that language was pulled. But later it was added back in as an amendment.
Yesterday, as the bill was being debated in the Missouri House, there was a motion and vote to reject that particular amendment – and the House voted 104 to 39 to keep allowing unsupervised children to continue openly carrying guns on public lands. It was primarily a party-line vote with all but one of the state’s GOP legislators voting against the common sense amendment and in favor of unsupervised children’s “rights” to openly carry firearms.
(To some Missouri residents - such as the one typing this blog posting - it almost seems as though most Republicans in the state legislature want crime to continue to be a major issue in St. Louis - as though rural, white legislators benefit politically from being able to demonize residents of that major metropolitan area. But surely my state's GOP politicians would not be that crass and uncaring toward their fellow human beings . . . surely not!)
Keep all of that in mind when planning your next vacation to the Great Midwest, especially if that outing includes visits to Missouri state parks or other public lands. We proudly protect everyone’s right to be shot in the “show-me” state!
Keep all of that in mind when planning your next vacation to the Great Midwest, especially if that outing includes visits to Missouri state parks or other public lands. We proudly protect everyone’s right to be shot in the “show-me” state!
No comments:
Post a Comment