It was a bad day for Republican leaders in Missouri after two bills to relax gun laws in the state were dumped following last week's fatal Kansas City shooting.
The pro-gun leaders of the Show-Me State — already a high-crime state that favors guns without restrictions over public safety — were trying to further chip away at commonsense gun laws with a bill that "would allow guns on public transit and inside churches," according to the Kansas City Star. They also had a bill in the works that would "exempt firearms and ammunition from sales taxes."
Then the shooting at the Super Bowl celebration rally that killed one person and injured at least 23 others happened. And suddenly, pushing for more gun-freedoms was not a good look. So they scrapped the bills — at least for now.
"While I do think both proposals are worthy of debate, they have no path to becoming law at this point," said Republican House Majority Leader Jonathan Patterson. "Now is not the appropriate time to be taking up those bills and therefore they will not be brought up this session."
From the Kansas City Star:
The decision from Patterson, who is in line to be speaker of the Missouri House next year should he win reelection, comes as local officials, Chiefs players and Kansas Citians who were at the parade and rally have called for the state to reexamine its lax approach to gun regulations.
Patterson is one of the first Missouri Republicans to acknowledge a need to examine the state's gun laws in the wake of the shooting. Republicans, including Gov. Mike Parson and House Speaker Dean Plocher, have either avoided the issue or pushed back on the idea of reopening the laws.
Plocher, a St. Louis-area Republican, on Thursday largely refused to answer questions about the state's gun laws and abruptly ended a news conference after he was asked repeatedly about the shooting. …
Sen. Greg Razer, a Kansas City Democrat who represents the area where the shooting happened, said that it was shameful that it took a mass shooting for Republicans to decide not to pursue the legislation.
"It's a shame that it took a tragedy, what happened at the Chiefs parade, for them to scrap those three terrible ideas," he said. "I'm sure they'll be back next year. You know, the speaker didn't have time to be wrapped up in Kansas City on Thursday with his press conference."
Two teenagers were charged in connection to the shooting and, as of last Friday, were being held in a juvenile detention center.
