Rep. Lichtenegger wants to close gun loophole to protect domestic violence victims

State Rep. Donna Lichtenegger, R-Jackson, wants to close a loophole in Missouri’s concealed-carry law that allows people with misdemeanor, domestic-violence convictions to own and carry firearms.

The GOP-dominated Missouri Legislature passed a concealed-carry measure in September, overriding Gov. Jay Nixon’s veto.

As a result, people can carry firearms without obtaining a permit from their sheriff’s department.

Lichtenegger said Monday she supported the concealed-carry bill, but she believes the loophole should be addressed to protect victims of domestic violence.

Under current state law, anyone convicted of a felony is barred from possessing firearms.

But the law does not apply to people convicted of misdemeanor crimes of domestic violence.

Now that no permits are required to carry concealed weapons in Missouri, law enforcement has no way to keep firearms out of the hands of those convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence, she said.

Lichtenegger recently filed new legislation to close the loophole after the National Rifle Association opposed her initial bill.

Under this latest bill, anyone convicted of a misdemeanor charge of domestic violence would be barred from possessing firearms just as with felony convictions.

The new bill is patterned after federal law, which more narrowly restricts what constitutes misdemeanor convictions for domestic violence.

Under federal law, a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence includes the use or attempted use of physical force or the threat of use of a deadly weapon.

Lichtenegger, who is an NRA life member, said she has talked to the organization about her latest bill.

“They are supporting this,” she said.

She said law-enforcement officers cannot enter a residence and confiscate weapons in domestic-abuse cases.

“This (bill) will make it easier to go in and confiscate weapons” after a domestic-abuse conviction, she said.

It would give police another option “to protect people who have been abused,” she added.

Her bill would allow people convicted of felony or misdemeanor domestic violence to continue to “possess or transport any firearm” for 24 hours after the serving of a court order if such possession or transport is for the purpose of selling or transferring the firearm to a legal buyer.

Lichtenegger said she wants to amend that provision to reduce the amount of time domestic abusers can hold onto their guns.

The 24-hour period “makes it really, really scary for the people who are victims,” she said.

She did not indicate what amount of time would be acceptable.

Lichtenegger said she personally knows about domestic violence.

“My mother was violated many times,” she said, adding her mother ended up divorcing her father.

Lichtenegger said as she grew older, she realized “how brave it was” for her mother to divorce her abusive father.

Lichtenegger said she hopes her House colleagues will support her bill.

But one Democratic lawmaker, Rep. Tracy McCreery, D-St. Louis, has objected to the new bill.

The Columbia Missourian newspaper in Columbia, Missouri, quoted McCreery as saying the 24-hour window is a “countdown to death.”

Lichtenegger’s bill, she said, is “worse than leaving the loophole in place.”

The bill includes an emergency clause that would allow it to take effect immediately if passed by the Legislature and signed into law.

The bill states immediate action is needed “to protect victims of domestic violence from potential future acts of domestic violence.”

According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence website, 40,645 incidents of domestic violence were reported in Missouri in 2012.

One in three women and one in four men nationwide have experienced a form of physical violence by an intimate partner, according to the website.

The presence of a gun in a home during a domestic-violence incident increases the risk of a homicide by at least 500 percent, according to the national coalition.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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