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From:
"Chris Meissen" <cmeissen@townsqr.com> Missouri's police should be up in arms over the duplicitous way that state Representatives Dan Ward and Rex Barnett along with three other representatives are using cops as cover for their latest attack on ordinary gun owners. Labeled as a bill to grant CCW permits to current and retired police officers, HB 1049 is really a bill to make it prohibitively difficult and expensive for anyone to even purchase a handgun. The devil is in the details. Missouri currently requires that before any citizen can purchase a handgun, said citizen must first apply to his or her sheriff for a permit to acquire a concealable firearm. That permit costs a maximum of $10 and is a "shall issue" permit for anyone who passes the same background check required by the federal government. In effect, the law is merely a registration law. HB 1049 adds one paragraph to this law, RSMo. 571.090. The new paragraph states that current or retired LEOs be issued a permit to carry as well as purchase. But the kicker comes a few paragraphs later. The proposed new language requires EVERYONE applying for a permit, either permit, to provide a certification of physical and mental health from a physician dated no more than thirty days prior to application. It also raises the cost of BOTH permits to $100 from the current $10. So, in effect, the real intent of this bill is to make it prohibitively difficult for ordinary folks to get a permit to buy a gun and getting Missouri's police officers to support this new imposition. Missouri's street-level officers have always supported gun ownership. I hope they'll be outraged to discover that they're being used like this.
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