Court upholds concealed weapons
Published Feb. 27, 2004
The Missouri Supreme Court issued a ruling Thursday that upheld the right of the General Assembly to allow concealed weapons, while invalidating the law in the four counties where officials sued the state over funding concerns.
The court ruled 5-2 to uphold the lawsuit filed by Cape Girardeau, Camden, Greene and Jackson county officials. The suit claimed the conceal-carry law violated the Hancock Amendment because the state did not provide sufficient money for issuing permits.
"If people want to roadblock things, it could continue to be an issue," said Rep. Larry Crawford, R-Centertown, who sponsored the House version of the law. "Conceal-carry is already legal in the state of Missouri, as is the carrying of concealed weapons in cars."
Burton Newman, the lawyer who argued for the injunction stopping the conceal-carry law, said legal battles over the law will continue.
"Based on the standards that the court announced, any county that would attempt to implement the law would be in violation of the Hancock Amendment of the constitution," Newman said. "We plan to challenge every county that implements the law. The probability for success will be high."
Although Crawford said he was excited by the ruling, county officials and legislators said there still is confusion over the requirements of the law and its ramifications.
Members of the Boone County Sheriff's Department have expressed concern with the law since the General Assembly overrode Gov. Bob Holden's veto in September.
Maj. O.J. Stone, of the Boone County Sheriff's Department, said although he does not know if the county will challenge the conceal-carry law on the grounds of the Hancock Amendment, he believes counties could do so. The ruling allows for the issuance of permits beginning today, but the Missouri Attorney General's Office recommended sheriff's departments wait until the constitutional issues are corrected.
"The Attorney General's Office will make a recommendation for the language to clean up the fees issue," spokesman Scott Holste said. "In the meantime, we're recommending that sheriffs wait to issue permits until the legislature puts that language into the law, because there is the very real possibility that other lawsuits could be filed under the Hancock Amendment that the new language would cover."
Stone said the Boone County Sheriff's Department would not issue any permits for at least 15 days as officials continue to review the bill.
"We're currently reading over the decision carefully and having the county legal counsel look at it," Stone said. "We'll have a meeting early next week to decide what to do then."
Crawford said the problematic aspect of the law was changed in committee and that he had filed a second bill to correct the problem Wednesday. The bill would allow the county to use application fees to pay for any "reasonable expenses" related to enforcing the conceal carry law.
Sen. Jon Cauthorn, R-Shelby, will file the Senate version of Crawford's new bill on Monday because there wasn't time to file the bill Thursday. Cauthorn has already circulated a draft of the bill seeking co-sponsors.
"We had been thinking about filing this bill, but we wanted to wait until we saw exactly what the ruling contained," Cauthorn's chief of staff Jerry Dowell said.
Rep. Vicky Riback Wilson, D-Columbia, said she was pleased with the ruling because it might allow Boone County to avoid the legalization of concealed weapons.
"If this does indeed allow an opportunity for Boone County to be exempted from the law, this is a positive because it affirms the wishes of the residents," Wilson said.