Senate General Laws Committee Advances Dangerous Bill to Allow Guns in Sensitive Spaces, Schools, Daycares, Bars; Missouri Moms Demand Action, Students Demand Action Respond

Volunteers Also Joined Law Enforcement, Public Safety Advocates, Faith Leaders in Testifying Against Bill to Expand Missouri’s Shoot First Law in House Special Committee on Government Oversight Hearing 

The Missouri chapters of Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action, both part of Everytown for Gun Safety’s grassroots network, released the following statement after the Missouri Senate General Laws Committee voted to advance SB 752, a bill to gut current public safety protections that keeps guns out of places they don’t belong. The bill would force public college campuses to allow people to carry hidden loaded guns onto their grounds, allow people to carry hidden, loaded guns around children at off-campus school events, as well as into daycares, bars, hospitals, public sporting arenas, and polling places, and encroach on Missourians’ rights by making it more difficult to keep guns off of private property even if the owner has posted a sign prohibiting guns on their property. The bill now goes to the Senate floor. 

“Allowing people to carry ‘guns everywhere’ – including in places where our children are supposed to feel safe, like daycares, field trips, and college campuses, and where emotions run high, like college sporting events and bars –  is a clear danger to public safety,” said Clarissa Hollander, a volunteer with the Missouri chapter of Moms Demand Action. “Our state already has some of the weakest gun laws and highest rates of gun violence in the nation. ​​We don’t need laws that force guns into sensitive spaces or expand the right to seek out  shoot first, ask questions later. We’ll keep fighting any and all attempts to weaken gun safety laws in Missouri.”

Missouri Moms Demand Action volunteers also testified today in the House Special Committee on Government Oversight against HB 2118, legislation that would put children, families, and communities at risk by expanding Missouri’s already-dangerous “Shoot First” law. HB 2118 contains identical language to SB666, referred to as the “Make Murder Legal Act” by the Missouri Association of Prosecuting Attorneys, which was voted down last month by the Senate Transportation, Infrastructure, and Public Safety Committee.  

Laws that give people the right to seek out dangerous situations, to shoot first, ask questions later, then claim self-defense are dangerous, essentially making murder legal by letting people use deadly force as the first option rather than the last, even when they can clearly and safely walk away. Moms Demand Action volunteers joined the State of Missouri NAACP, the Missouri Prosecuting Attorneys Association, Missouri Sheriffs United, the Kansas City Fraternal Order of Police, St. Louis Police Officers Association, and Missouri Police Chiefs in opposing HB 2118. More information about shoot first laws is available here.

More information about gun violence in Missouri is available here.