Judge delays weapons law; appeal filed

ST. LOUIS -- Missouri's new concealed gun law was put on hold Friday when a judge issued a temporary restraining order on constitutional grounds and the state Supreme Court decided to take no immediate action on an appeal.

The order by Circuit Judge Steven Ohmer came just hours before today's start date for the concealed guns law. An appeal by Attorney General Jay Nixon with the state's Eastern District Court of Appeals was denied a short time later; Nixon then filed a second appeal with the state Supreme Court.

But Bill Thompson, a counsel for the Supreme Court, said the court would not issue a ruling Friday. It was unclear when the court would take up the appeal of the temporary restraining order. Ohmer has scheduled an Oct. 23 hearing to determine whether to impose a permanent injunction of the law.

The temporary restraining order took effect late Friday only after the plaintiffs successfully posted a required $250,000 bond to cover businesses' potential losses for delaying the law. One plaintiff, St. Louis Alderwoman Lyda Krewson, said she and others mortgaged their houses to pay the bond.

"We obviously believe that the judge reached the right conclusion today, that this law should be temporarily enjoined until the Supreme Court has an opportunity to review all of these issues and determine whether or not this law is constitutional," said Burton Newman, one of the attorneys for the plaintiffs.

Comments from 1875

Ohmer ruled the law warranted further review by the Missouri Supreme Court and would have caused irreparable harm had it taken effect today.

The judge cited comments from debate at Missouri's constitutional convention of 1875 that carrying concealed weapons is "a practice which cannot be too severely condemned" and is connected to "incalculable evil."

Newman and fellow attorney Richard Miller had argued the law is unconstitutional because it violates clauses dating back to the 1875 Missouri Constitution.

They cited a section of the Bill of Rights from the 1945 Missouri Constitution declaring the right to bear arms "shall not justify the wearing of concealed weapons" and a similar clause in the 1875 version stating "nothing herein contained is intended to justify the practice of wearing concealed weapons."

Newman and Miller represented a group of public officials, members of the St. Louis Clergy Coalition and the nonprofit Institute for Peace and Justice.

The Missouri attorney general's office, serving as the defendants, argued that the constitutional clauses express a "reservation," not a prohibition on allowing Missourians to carry concealed weapons. Assistant attorney general Alana Barragan-Scott argued the clauses were not meant as a restriction on the legislature to pass concealed-weapons laws.

Miller, however, said the clauses served no purpose if they did not prohibit a law such as the new concealed guns law.

Democratic Gov. Bob Holden praised the court decision. The legislature voted on Sept. 11 to override Holden's veto of the bill, meaning it was to have taken effect automatically 30 days later.

"The conceal and carry law ... was obviously flawed in many respects," Holden said in a statement. "I believe the court took appropriation action today by preventing this ill-conceived law from taking effect."

'Unbelievably frivolous'

Supporters of the law predicted they would eventually be victorious.

The judge's ruling "will be overturned, there's no question about that," said Kevin Jamison, a Kansas City lawyer who is president of the Western Missouri Shooters Alliance and author of a book on the history of concealed guns legislation. "The plaintiffs went judge shopping, and they found what they wanted. Their petition is unbelievably frivolous. It shows a complete misunderstanding of the law."

Jamison and other legal analysts contend the constitution's language means only that there is no guaranteed right to concealed guns, implying the legislature can either allow or disallow them. If the constitution actually banned concealed guns, then Missouri's laws allowing police to carry concealed guns also would be invalid, he said.

The concealed guns law allows Missourians age 23 and older who pay $100 and pass background checks and a training course to receive a permit from their county sheriffs to carry concealed guns. It also allows anyone age 21 or older to conceal a gun in a vehicle without need of a permit.

Because the temporary restraining order came so close to the law's effective date, Cole County Sheriff John Hemeyer said his office would accept applications as planned today. That would allow the actual permits to be issued immediately if the law is later upheld, he said.

Other sheriffs had not planned on accepting applications until next Tuesday, because they lacked staffing on the weekend and Monday is a holiday.

Ohmer agreed to hear the case in St. Louis after Newman and Miller added as a defendant the city's sheriff, who will administer the law by issuing permits. Most lawsuits naming the state as a defendant are tried in Cole County, home to the state's capital.