Missouri lawmakers have reportedly pre-filed a dozen different gun control bills for the upcoming legislative session, but a firearms instructor identified as Shawn Harper suggested to KFEQ News in St. Joseph that the likelihood any of these measures will make a difference is somewhere between zero and never.
“No gun control law will fix the problems that we have,” Harper reportedly stated.
This was in sharp contrast to the claim by a spokesman for the local Moms Demand Action group, a gun control lobbying organization supported by anti-gun billionaire Michael Bloomberg. He was quoted by KFEQ stating, “We need to take steps in the state to help protect and help reduce gun violence in our communities and help to promote gun safety. I think it is a good opportunity for this legislative session to address some bills that will do just that.”
Among the proposed laws are Senate Bill 163 and House Bill 210, which would, the report candidly observed, “criminalize private firearm transfers.”
“If approved by the general assembly, the bill(s) would make it illegal for a person to sell or transfer a firearm unless the person is a firearms dealer; selling or transferring to a firearms dealer, or performing the transaction through a licensed firearms dealer,” the station explained.
Moms Demand spokesman Scott Randolph asserted that this requirement, generically called “universal background checks,” will reduce violent crime.
“It’s been proven in other states and other areas to be an effective way to reduce gun violence and to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people,” Randolph stated.
But is that really the case? California police have captured the suspected killer of Newman Police Cpl. Ronil Singh on Wednesday. He’s been identified as an illegal alien, who, under California’s strict background check law, should not have had a firearm.
In Washington State, voters approved an anti-rights initiative in 2014 that requires “universal background checks” on all firearms transfers. But that law did not prevent a triple slaying in 2016 that left three teens dead in Mukilteo and the killer, who passed the background check, in prison. A few months later, another shooting at a shopping mall left five people dead because the killer bypassed a background check by taking a rifle that belonged to his step-father.
California gun laws didn’t prevent Luis Bracamontes, another illegal alien, from murdering two sheriffs’ deputies more than four years ago.
Missouri lawmakers will also consider Senate Bill 40, which requires so-called “safe storage” of firearms. Also, there are two so-called “red flag” bills in the hopper, House Bill 40 and Senate Bill 23. Harper, the instructor, reflected the widespread concerns about these “extreme risk protection orders,” or ERPOs.
“Anyone that is a danger to themselves or others should not possess firearms,” Harper observed, “although let’s also not forget due process, because firearms are also covered under property rights. You can’t just take someone’s guns because someone accuses them of something.”
The situation in Missouri is reflective of a renewed push across the country for more gun restrictions. Rights activists are bracing for legislative fights as the new year unfolds.
