Conceal-carry permits mirror vote in 1999

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- This isn't the way most people figured it would occur. But finally, it appears, the will of the people is being carried out when it comes to concealed guns.

The reality that has surfaced following a confusing Missouri Supreme Court ruling is that residents in most rural areas now can get concealed gun permits, and residents in Missouri's biggest urban areas cannot.

And that's almost precisely the way the votes broke down in an April 1999 referendum on concealed guns.

The proposal passed in 104 counties and failed in 10 others plus the city of St. Louis. But the 11 jurisdictions where it failed had just enough votes to overcome the counties where it passed. The final statewide percentage: 48 percent for it, 52 percent against it.

Last year, state legislators reversed the outcome of the 1999 election, overriding Gov. Bob Holden's veto of a bill legalizing concealed gun permits for certain adults. The Supreme Court upheld the essence of the law Feb. 26, but declared the funding mechanism could be unconstitutional in some counties.

In the three months following that ruling, most rural counties have begun taking applications for concealed gun permits. Yet the two biggest urban areas -- St. Louis and Kansas City -- are still refusing to do so.

As of today, at least 93 counties will be accepting concealed gun permits, according to figures compiled by the Missouri State Highway Patrol, the Associated Press and a concealed guns advocate.

Based on 2000 census figures, that means about 46 percent of Missourians will live in counties where concealed gun permits are available, and 54 percent will live in counties where they are not.

Those percentages are remarkably similar to the results of the 1999 referendum.

"In a rough sort of way, I suppose it is" representative of the will of the people, said Senate President Pro Tem Peter Kinder, when asked about the concealed gun figures. "And I don't think anyone should be surprised."

Legislators could have done something about Missouri's varying availability of permits during their session that ended May 14. After the Supreme Court ruling, concealed guns supporters introduced bills attempting to fix the law's funding flaw -- a move that could have wiped away the main excuse for counties not implementing the law.

But after Holden threatened to veto the bill, Kinder and House Speaker Catherine Hanaway moved the funding-fix legislation to the end of their priority lists, and nothing passed.

Down to a few counties

When the session ended, 30 counties and the city of St. Louis still were not accepting concealed gun permits. That number is expected to decline to 21 by today and to dwindle further during the rest of June.

Ultimately, "I think we're going to come down to a battle with six, seven or eight counties," said Tim Oliver, a Boone County firearms trainer who tracks counties accepting concealed gun permits on his Internet site, www.learntocarry.com.

One of those counties is Jackson County, which in the February Supreme Court ruling was exempted from having to follow the law after showing it would impose an illegal, unfunded state mandate in that county.

Another of those counties is St. Louis County, which has filed a lawsuit seeking a similar cost-grounds exemption from the law. A preliminary hearing on the county's claim is scheduled for June 8 in Cole County Circuit Court.

St. Louis County voters defeated the 1999 concealed guns referendum by almost 70 percent of the vote -- one of the most lopsided tallies in the state. The referendum failed in Jackson County by 61 percent.

'An open question'

A few other counties where the measure failed, such as Buchanan County, also are refusing to implement the law because of cost concerns, although no lawsuits are pending there.

"Whether they're violating the law in what they're doing or not is still an open question," said Sterling Burnett, a senior fellow at the National Center for Policy Analysis in Dallas, who believes the benefits of concealed guns outweighs the harms.

Burnett, who keeps up with concealed gun laws around the nation, said it's not unusual for cities to fight a state law allowing concealed guns, or for some local law enforcement officers to be more stringent than others in granting permits. But he said Missouri is unique in its current hodgepodge of county-by-county decisions to follow the law.

With neither any legislation nor a court case on the fast-track to settle the disparity, Missouri could continue in its current state of affairs for some time.

"I would prefer to have a uniform state law," Kinder said. But until a new legislature and governor "can work out the anomaly in that funding, we're doing as we do on many tough issues -- we're muddling through."