VICTORY FOR GUN SAFETY: Missouri Moms Demand Action, Students Demand Action Celebrates Defeat of Multiple Dangerous Gun Bills as Legislature Adjourns

Missouri Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action Volunteers Joined Law Enforcement, Public Safety Advocates in Testifying Against Multiple Dangerous Bills Designed to Weaken Gun Laws Throughout This Year’s Legislative Session

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 legislature officially ended its legislative session, adjourning sine die. After testimony and advocacy from Missouri Moms Demand Action volunteers, lawmakers rejected and failed to advance several dangerous policies to weaken gun laws, including bills that would expand Missouri’s dangerous Shoot First law and bills to gut public safety measures and allow guns in places they don’t belong, like college campuses, daycares and bars. 

“This session, we showed up and showed out against bills that would have put Missourians lives on the line, and our lawmakers failed to pass a single one of these dangerous gun bills,” said Tara Bennett, a volunteer with the Missouri chapter of Moms Demand Action. “We need real solutions to our state’s already devastating gun violence crisis that will save lives and keep us safe, not policies that would make it worse. We’ll keep fighting against any attempts to weaken gun safety laws.”

This session, Missouri lawmakers failed to advance or voted to reject the following pieces of legislation after hearing significant opposition from public safety advocates, including volunteers with the Missouri chapter of Moms Demand Action:

• SB 666, or the “Make Murder Legal Act,” which would have expanded Missouri’s already dangerous Shoot First law, which essentially makes 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. Lawmakers also failed to advance multiple similar bills to place communities at risk and unnecessarily expand Shoot First, including HB2118, SB1229, and SB1134.

• SB 752, which would have gutted current public safety protections that keeps guns out of places they don’t belong. The bill would have forced public college campuses to allow people to carry hidden loaded guns onto their grounds, allowed people to carry hidden, loaded guns around children at private K-12 schools, as well as into daycares, bars, hospitals, and polling places, and encroached on Missourians’ rights by limiting their ability to keep guns off of private property.

• HB 1481 which would have increased the presence of firearms in schools by allowing more school personnel to carry inside Missouri K-12 schools. Arming school employees does not make children safer — instead, it increases the risk of gun violence in schools by increasing the chances that a gun will fall into the wrong hands, or that a gun will discharge unintentionally and injure a student. 

According to Everytown’s gun law rankings report, Missouri has some of the weakest gun laws in the country, with no foundational gun laws, like the requirement of a background check for firearm purchases or a permit to carry a concealed handgun in public. Learn more about gun violence in Missouri here.