05/03/2005
But it's likely to be weeks, if not months, before either jurisdiction - the state's only holdouts - make such permits available.
Gov. Matt Blunt expects to sign the measure into law but won't do so until after the legislative session ends next week, a spokesman said.
And in the city, the concealed-weapons applications will be taken by appointment only, Sheriff James W. Murphy said Tuesday. "We're going to do it as conveniently as possible, but we don't want lines of people" waiting to apply, the sheriff said.
A special telephone line may be installed to take calls from potential applicants, Murphy said. But he added that it will be at least a month before his office is even ready to accept applications, because it's waiting for the arrival of a new fingerprint machine. The device will be used to fingerprint all concealed-weapon applicants.
St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley isn't commenting until his staff has studied the bill, spokesman Mac Scott said. "First, we've got to wait until it's signed into law."
The county and the city had been the state's last holdouts in granting the permits to those residents 23 and older who seek to carry concealed weapons. Under state law, applicants pay a fee of up to $100, and must complete a firearms training course as well as clear a fingerprint background check.
The Legislature had approved that law in 2003, over the veto of then-Gov. Bob Holden. Also objecting were officials in St. Louis and St. Louis County - where voters had overwhelmingly opposed the idea in a 1999 statewide vote.
Tuesday's vote dealt with the chief argument that city and county officials had used in their subsequent court fight: that the law amounted to an unconstitutional, unfunded government mandate because of restrictions on how the $100 fee could be spent.
The state Supreme Court concurred with that funding argument early last year, while also upholding the legality of concealed weapons.
In Tuesday's vote, the state Senate passed by 29-3 a measure that allows local governments to use the $100 fee to cover any of their expenses involved in handling the permit applications. The House overwhelmingly approved the same bill in March, 142-7.
The bill allows local jurisdictions to seek extra money from the state, if the $100-per-person fee isn't enough to cover processing costs.
Murphy and Scott said $100 should be enough.
In St. Charles County, the sheriff's office charges $90.70 for each applicant. "We're not making money on it," said Lt. Craig McGuire said. The county has issued just over 900 permits since it began processing them in March last year.
Statewide, as of a month ago, about 16,000 permits had been issued. Jefferson County was the jurisdiction that had issued the most - almost 1,000, at a cost of $100 each, said Sheriff Oliver "Glenn" Boyer.
The bill is HB 365.
The Associated Press and Tim Bryant and Robert Kelly of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.