Court OKs concealed gun law

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Although the Missouri Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the constitutionality of a state law allowing concealed weapons, the state was prohibited from enforcing the act in four counties, including Cape Girardeau. Residents of those counties at least temporarily won't be eligible for permits to carry hidden guns.

Cape Girardeau, Camden, Greene and Jackson counties were exempted from being required to issue permits because the court found the law imposes an unfunded mandate on local government in violation of the Hancock amendment.

In a 5-2 decision, the court said the Missouri Legislature has the constitutional authority to allow concealed weapons. However, the majority opinion penned by Judge Stephen Limbaugh Jr. of Cape Girardeau exempted the four counties from being required to issue permits because those counties provided evidence that the law violates the Hancocock amendment.

Testimony by Cape Girardeau Sheriff John Jordan in support of the conceal-carry measure before a St. Louis circuit judge ironically and inadvertently led to the county being among those where the law does not have to be enforced.

Nonetheless, Jordan said his office will begin issuing permits in the coming weeks, though it may require action by the Cape Girardeau County Commission before that can happen.

The court left open the question whether a county can fund the permitting costs voluntarily from other revenue sources.

"This is really just a bump in the road," Jordan said. "I am very much in favor of conceal-carry and prepared to proceed."

While the court said Cape Girardeau County didn't have to issue permits, Jordan said the ruling didn't preclude it from doing so.

Attorney General Jay Nixon urged sheriffs to wait until after a statutory fix clears the legislature before issuing permits in order to avoid lawsuits on the Hancock question. The sponsor of the disputed law, state Rep. Larry Crawford, R-California, has already filed legislation seeking to clean up the prior effort and is open to Nixon's input.

But Laclede County Sheriff Richard Wrinkle said he would start issuing concealed gun permits Monday. In Camden County, Sheriff John Page said he plans to begin issuing permits within the next week.

The ruling left some lawmen baffled about how to proceed. "You have 114 poor sheriffs out there trying to figure out this mess," said veteran Sheriff John Hemeyer of Cole County.

Hidden in vehicles

The portion of the law allowing anyone at least 21 years of age to conceal a weapon in a vehicle without a permit went into effect statewide with the court's decision.

Although the concealed weapons law allows sheriffs to charge permit applicants up to $100, it earmarks the proceeds for equipment and training. As a result, the measure's foes said no actual funding was provided for processing permits, thus triggering Hancock.

In addition to Jordan, the sheriffs of Camden and Greene counties also testified in support of the law before the circuit court. A representative of the Jackson County Sheriff's Department testified against it.

The high court determined that at the very least those counties would incur costs of $38 per applicant for having the Missouri State Highway Patrol conduct fingerprint checks, causing a Hancock violation.

But because evidence was on the record for only four counties, the court limited its ruling to those jurisdictions. The court declined to speculate that other counties would also incur costs since such facts were not in evidence. The court left open the possibility of county-by-county lawsuits on that point.

The dissenting opinion written by Chief Justice Ronnie White and joined by Judge Richard Teitelman asserted that even with the fees collected by local sheriffs, the law violates Hancock because it provides no state money.

"Hancock requires full state funding, period," White wrote.

Nixon, whose office defended the law in court, said he will draft proposed legislation to address the majority's Hancock concern.

In September the legislature overrode a veto by Gov. Bob Holden to enact the concealed weapons measure. It was set to take effect the following month until blocked by St. Louis Circuit Court Judge Steven Ohmer.

Ohmer rejected the Hancock argument but found the law unconstitutional under a provision of the state Bill of Rights. The relevant section says the right of residents to bear arms "shall not be questioned" but adds that "this shall not justify the wearing of concealed weapons."

Ohmer interpreted that last clause as an outright ban on concealed weapons, a view the Supreme Court rejected.

"In short, the words used are plain and unambiguous," Limbaugh wrote. "There is no constitutional prohibition against the wearing of concealed weapons; there is only a prohibition against invoking the right to keep and bear arms to justify the wearing of concealed weapons."

Joining Limbaugh in the majority were judges Duane Benton, William Ray Price, Michael Wolff and Laura Denvir Stith.

The dissenting judges claimed that since the law is clearly unconstitutional under Hancock, the majority shouldn't have weighed in on the other issue.

Recalling 1999 vote

Holden said he's still convinced allowing concealed weapons is bad public policy, especially given that Missouri voters rejected a similar proposal in 1999.

"This law should have never been enacted over the will of the citizens," Holden said. "It is poorly drafted legislation that will allow any permit holder to carry a weapon in schools, school buses, places of worship and polling places on Election Day."

While the law says concealed weapons can't be taken in the places Holden mentioned, it doesn't make doing so a crime. A person found with a hidden weapon in a restricted area can be asked to leave, and only refusal to do so can result in a citation.

Residents 23 or older who pass a firearms training course and criminal background check are eligible for permits.

Legislative backers of the law applauded the court's ruling, though they said the court's statement on the Hancock issue needs to be thoroughly analyzed.

"We're thrilled that a 5-2 majority of the court has vindicated on the main point the constitutionality of our statute that culminated a 10-year effort to pass into law a right that the vast majority of Americans already have," said Senate President Pro Tem Peter Kinder, R-Cape Girardeau.

The case is Alvin Brooks, et al., v. State of Missouri, et al.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

mpowers@semissourian.com

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