Today the Missouri Senate approved without revision HCS HB 365 as passed by the House WITH an emergency clause. Because the bill was approved by the Senate without any changes from the version passed by the House, the bill now moves on to the Governor's desk for final action.

The emergency clause states: "Section B. Because of the need to clarify ambiguities in the laws governing the administrative costs incurred by sheriffs' departments in processing concealed weapons permit applications, section A of this act is deemed necessary for the immediate preservation of the public health, welfare, peace and safety, and is hereby

declared to be an emergency act within the meaning of the constitution, and section A of this act shall be in full force and effect upon its passage and approval."

This means that with the approval/signature of Governor Matt Blunt [who is expected to sign this], we will NOT have to wait until August 28th, 2005 for the law to take effect.

THE FIX

HCS HB365 revises the language of the Sheriff's Revolving Fund to allow the sheriff to use the application fee for the License to Carry process to: "make necessary expenditures to process applications for concealed carry endorsements or renewals, including but not limited to, the purchase of equipment, training, fingerprinting and background

checks, employment of additional personnel, and any expenditure necessitated by an action under section 571.114 or 571.117, RSMo."

With passage of this law, the so-called Hancock violation the "exists" in St. Louis County and City SHOULD be removed.

St. Louis County PD has been getting ready for taking applications for a long time. It has just been the political disposition of SOME in the County government that have been standing in the way of St. Louis County residents from getting a license from their home

county. That may be about to change.

A "Thank You" for their efforts goes to many in our legislature who pushed forward with this fix... First and foremost, Rep. Brian Munzlinger, the bill's chief sponsor, and all our friends in the State Senate on down to all of our elected officials that voted to fix

the funding even if some of them may have been opposed to the original bill/law.

Our LTC law is still in its infancy but to date has proven effective in ALL counties in our state... including St. Louis County and St. Louis City. Even though they refused to take applications and issue licenses, THOUSANDS of residents have sought and received their lawful licenses to carry from other states.

With passage of HCS HB 365, St. Louis City and County should finally join all the other state counties and begin issuing licenses to carry.