Cape sheriff testifies on conceal-carry fix

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Cape Girardeau County Sheriff John Jordan on Tuesday endorsed a bill that aims to fix a constitutional problem with the state law that allows qualified Missourians to obtain permits to carry concealed weapons.

The bill, sponsored by state Sen. Jason Crowell, R-Cape Girardeau, clarifies that sheriffs may use the fee of up to $100 they are authorized to collect from permit applicants to cover their costs for processing the applications. As currently written, the conceal-carry law narrowly earmarks fee proceeds for sheriffs' training and equipment costs.

That restriction prompted the Missouri Supreme Court to rule a year ago that sheriffs may not have to process permit applications because the law didn't directly compensate them for the added duties and, therefore, was an unconstitutional unfunded mandate.

Testifying before the Senate Pensions, Veterans Affairs and General Laws Committee, Jordan said Crowell's bill will clear up any lingering uncertainty.

"We feel this addresses those issues," Jordan said.

After the legislature failed to act on similar legislation last year filed in the wake of the court's decision, nearly every county eventually voluntarily accepted the unfunded mandate and began processing permits anyway. Because of the court's ruling, however, sheriffs remain vulnerable to lawsuits if they issue permits.

Today, only Jackson and St. Louis counties plus St. Louis City aren't accepting permits. Jackson County plans to begin doing so Monday.

Crowell, who chairs the general laws committee, said he hopes that in pursuing this simple fix lawmakers will steer clear of the divisive arguments over concealed weapons that dominated the legislature for a decade before it finally enacted the law over a gubernatorial veto in 2003.

"This is not a debate over the merits of conceal and carry," Crowell said. "Those issues are well-settled."

State Sen. Pat Dougherty, a concealed weapons foe, said he doesn't object to the goal of Crowell's bill. However, he does oppose a provision that would allow sheriffs to request reimbursement from the state if revenue from permit application fees proved inadequate to cover processing costs. Given the tight state budget situation, Dougherty said it would be wrong for Missouri taxpayers to bear that expense.

"We shouldn't be asking citizens to pay for somebody else's interest in carrying concealed weapons," Dougherty said.

Crowell said that provision, crafted with the input of Attorney General Jay Nixon's office, was necessary to protect the law from future unfunded mandate claims.

No one testified in opposition to the bill, which the committee will vote on at a later date.

The bill is SB 157.

mpowers@semissourian.com

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