ST. CHARLES COUNTY — St. Charles County officials plan to spend more time considering what restrictions would be reasonable to attach to the state's new law permitting eligible citizens to carry concealed weapons.

The County Council was expected to vote Tuesday whether to pass a bill calling for, among other things, a ban of concealed weapons inside any county buildings. Instead, members decided there was no need to take action just yet.

"I'm not in a hurry to pass this," said Council Chairman Bob Schnur, R-District 3.

Several factors contributed to the decision to wait.

For one, a temporary injunction was slapped on the state's law, and a St. Louis circuit court judge still was deciding this week whether to grant a permanent injunction.

Also, Councilman Jeff Morrison, who does not support the county's proposed bill, pointed out what he saw as possible problems with a certain section of it.

The bill would prohibit concealed weapons anywhere on the premises of the county's parks. Morrison, R-District 1, questioned whether the county has the authority to do that.

He also suggested an amendment that would allow possession of a weapon in a vehicle parked in the designated areas of the county's parks. The reason is that Morrison and several officials said they believed the state already allows the transportation of weapons in a vehicle.

Also convincing officials to halt the bill were three residents who addressed the council Tuesday during a public hearing.

The first was Barbara Grimm. She asked the council to reconsider a section of the bill that would authorize the county to post signs at locations where it chose to prohibit concealed weapons. Grimm believed that was unnecessary.

She also told officials, "I hope you will consider not restricting our constitutional rights any further than they need to be."

Another resident, Gil Pyles, asked the council, "what is the rush?"

"Sometimes when you have something like (the state's new law) people have feelings and they don't quite know what to do about them, but they feel like they have to do something," he said.

Pyles said he has spoken to officials in other states where concealed weapons are legal, and from them, he found out that "it really turns out not to be a problem."

A third resident, Michael Gamble, said he disagreed with the county's proposal to ban concealed weapons in parks. He urged the council to approach the matter "cautiously and rationally."

"I think you need to be slow and study this and verify that you're not creating a problem," he said.

The only speaker on Tuesday who urged the council to move forward and pass the bill was county Circuit Court Judge Lucy Rauch.

"I don't think anybody is trying to indulge in a knee-jerk reaction," she said. But, she added, officials are "aware of the weapons" that the public tries to take into the county's courthouse.

After the public hearing, the council voted to table the proposed bill to allow discussion of it during future meetings.

"I hope that we didn't demonstrate that there is an urgency to slam this thing through," Schnur told residents. "I don't want to pass something just to pass something."