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Proposition B in Missouri was a failed 1999 ballot measure that would have required local police authorities to issue concealed weapons permits to eligible citizens. It was a contentious issue and was narrowly rejected at the time by the electorate, but the legislature later approved similar legislation in 2003.[ citation needed ]
Support for concealed carry laws in Missouri grew gradually throughout the 1990s. In 1991, a group to promote such laws called "the conference" was formed and that nickname was used until the Missouri Legislative Issues Council (MOLIC) was formed in 1995 for official recognition. Support for these laws increased in part as a response to the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act and other national gun control efforts.
After author/columnist John Ross made his attempts to convince Missouri legislators, other supporters also emerged. The NRA formed Missourians Against Crime (MAC) in 1998 as their spokesman into Missouri. This created an issue with the MOLIC membership. Negative campaigns seldom succeed in Missouri. The MOLIC organization was transformed into Missourians for Personal Safety(MPS) for the 1998 Proposition B campaign with Steve McGhee as the President. These combined efforts brought notoriety to Greg Jeffery, attorney/author Kevin Jamison, and Tim Oliver, to the forefront of their local/regional news media. As the Missouri Sport Shooting Association (MSSA), joined (unofficially) in support, they all proceeded with their regional campaigning attempts. Eventually, more and more individuals heard of these volunteers/members and took up the task to support the proposition with smaller meetings and neighborhood 'grass roots' action groups.
Police Officers generally supported the measure: "In a recent poll, more than eighty-five percent of our 1352 members favored Right-to-Carry.", Letter to St. Louis Police Chief Ron Henderson, from Sgt. John J. Johnson, President St. Louis Police Officers Association, 1/23/99." [1]
The Gateway Civil Liberties Alliance (GCLA) arose after the failure to pass the proposition in 1999; forming itself from MOLIC, MPS, and with WMSA giving support, to become the leadership and legislative clearing house for the 2003 success in passing a shall-issue law. Frequent trips to Jefferson City by Greg Jeffery (GCLA cofounder) earned him the nickname 'braintrust' to a newly created law that was adopted by Missouri in 2003. [2]
Handgun Control, Inc., saw this as their test case before the elections in 2000 to exercise their political influence [3] and lobbied hard to defeat the referendum. [4] Political notables included the Clinton/Gore Administration [5] with Attorney General Janet Reno playing a secondary role to Hillary Clinton's activism, Governor Mel Carnahan and his daughter Robin Carnahan, the 1994 appointed [6] Secretary of State, Rebecca Cook, [7] and State Auditor, Claire McCaskill.
Robin Carnahan chaired the Safe Schools and Workplaces Committee (SSWC) and orchestrated television ads against the proposition. Also, on the weekend prior to voting day, that organization coordinated the taped phone message from Hillary Clinton to automatically dial 75,000 homes statewide with the message, "just too dangerous for Missouri families." [8]
The General Assembly approved the following ballot language:
Shall state or local law enforcement agencies be authorized to issue permits to law-abiding citizens at least twenty-one years of age to carry concealed firearms outside their home for personal protection after having passed a state and federal criminal background check and having completed a firearms safety training course approved by the Missouri Department of Public Safety?
After a lawsuit filed by the opponents of the measure, the language was changed. The final text read:
"Shall sheriffs, or in the case of St. Louis County, the chief of police, be required to issue permits to carry concealed firearms to citizens who apply if various statutory requirements are satisfied?" Because of the discretion given to local law enforcement to verify the accuracy of applications, the costs are uncertain. Application fees are estimated to cover most costs for the first three years. Subsequently, local governments, as a whole, may incur costs from $500,000 to $1,000,000 annually, not covered by fees.
Missouri Sport Shooting Association President Kevin Jamison described it as, "The opposition conducted a poll of the ballot language which determined that 60% of the state would vote in favor of License to Carry. Outraged that the people might "speak wrong", the Governor's lawyer filed a suit with the Missouri Supreme Court to change the ballot language. The defendants in the suit were Attorney General Jay Nixon and State Auditor Claire McCaskill." [9]
The use of official government resources by opponents of the measure was controversial.
Missouri's two US Attorneys are using the Justice Department's name and facilities to lobby against the state's concealed weapons ballot issue. Using official department letterhead, the attorneys, Edward Dowd and Stephen Hill, urged sheriffs and police chiefs across the state to rally resistance against Proposition B, which is on the ballot this April. Dowd's office is operating an 800 number which people can call to obtain anti-prop B campaigning materials. Calls to the 800 number, 1-800-214-2690, are answered with "US Attorneys Office." [10]
Some advertisements used in the campaign were deceptive, particularly an opposition ad [11] that implied Missourians would be allowed to carry Uzis [12] that continued into 2000. [13]
Proposition B gained 634,361 votes in favor (48.3%) and 678,256 votes against (51.7%), thus being defeated by a margin of 3.3%. [14]
The majority of voters in rural Missouri voted in favor of Proposition B. However, urban voters, particularly in St. Louis and Kansas City, tipped the balance against Proposition B. 74.1% of the voters in the city of St. Louis, 69.5% in St. Louis County, and 71.6% in Kansas City opposed Proposition B. [14]
In 2003, the Missouri General Assembly passed new laws to enable shall-issue permits. [2]
The following persons played important roles in the creation of law in the State of Missouri. This is not their biography but an outline of the positions held during the 1999 Proposition B campaigns.
Pro-2nd Amendment activist.
John Ross Author/Columnist [15]
Concealed Firearms Instructor
1998 Chairman/Co-founder; Missouri Legislative Issues Council (MOLIC).
Co-founder; Missourians for Personal Safety (MPS) [16]
Supporter, Missouri Sport Shooting Association (MSSA) [17]
Pro-2nd Amendment activist.
Attorney/Author [18]
Co-founder; Missouri Legislative Issues Council (MOLIC)
Co-founder; Missourians for Personal Safety (MPS) [16]
2006 President, Missouri Sport Shooting Association (MSSA) [17]
Pro-2nd Amendment activist.
Conceal Carry Firearms Instructor [19]
Co-founder; Missouri Legislative Issues Council (MOLIC)
Co-founder; Missourians for Personal Safety (MPS) [16]
Supporter; Missouri Sport Shooting Association (MSSA) [17]
Pro-2nd Amendment activist.
Co-founder; Missouri Legislative Issues Council (MOLIC)
Co-founder; Missourians for Personal Safety (MPS) [16]
Supporter, Missouri Sport Shooting Association (MSSA) [17]
Co-founder The Gateway Civil Liberties Alliance (GCLA) [20]
Legislative Consultant to Missouri Lawmakers.
Pro-2nd Amendment activist.
NRA Master Training Counselor/Instructor [21]
1998 President, Missouri Sport Shooting Association (MSSA) [17]
1999 President/Co-founder; Missourians for Personal Safety (MPS) [16]
| Pro-2nd Amendment | |
| NRA | +$3 Million |
| Pro-Gun Control | |
| Out of State | $399,079 |
| In State | $164,000 |
Pro-Gun Control activist. [23] Governor Mel Carnahan pledged neutrality.
Robin Carnahan chaired the Safe Schools and Workplaces Committee (SSWC)
Pro-Gun Control activist.
US Attorneys: (established 1-800-214-2690) [10] [24]
Pro-Gun Control & Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act activist.
Gun laws and policies, collectively referred to as firearms regulation or gun control, regulate the manufacture, sale, transfer, possession, modification, and use of small arms by civilians. Laws of some countries may afford civilians a right to keep and bear arms, and have more liberal gun laws than neighboring jurisdictions. Gun control typically restricts access to certain categories of firearms and limits the categories of persons who may be granted permission to access firearms. There may be separate licenses for hunting, sport shooting, self-defense, collecting, and concealed carry, each with different sets of requirements, privileges, and responsibilities.
More Guns, Less Crime is a book by John R. Lott Jr. that says violent crime rates go down when states pass "shall issue" concealed carry laws. He presents the results of his statistical analysis of crime data for every county in the United States during 29 years from 1977 to 2005. Each edition of the book was refereed by the University of Chicago Press. As of 2019, the book is no longer published by the University of Chicago Press. The book examines city, county and state level data from the entire United States and measures the impact of 13 different types of gun control laws on crime rates. The book expands on an earlier study published in 1997 by Lott and his co-author David Mustard in The Journal of Legal Studies and by Lott and his co-author John Whitley in The Journal of Law and Economics, October 2001.
Melvin Eugene Carnahan was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 51st governor of Missouri from 1993 until his death in 2000. Carnahan was a Democrat and held various positions in government.
Brady: United Against Gun Violence is an American nonprofit organization that advocates for gun control and against gun violence. It is named after former White House press secretary James "Jim" Brady, who was permanently disabled and later died in 2014 as a result of the Ronald Reagan assassination attempt of 1981, and his wife Sarah Brady, who was a chairwoman of the organization from 1989 until her death in 2015.
Roger Byron Wilson is an American politician who served as the 44th lieutenant governor of Missouri from January 1993 to October 2000 and as the 52nd governor of Missouri from October 2000 to January 2001. Wilson was serving his second four-year term as lieutenant governor and was preparing to retire from elected public service when Governor Mel Carnahan died in a plane crash on October 16, 2000. Wilson first became acting governor and was sworn in as governor when Carnahan’s death was confirmed.
Concealed carry, or carrying a concealed weapon (CCW), is the practice of carrying a weapon in public in a concealed manner, either on one's person or in close proximity. CCW is often practiced as a means of self-defense. Following the Supreme Court's NYSRPA v. Bruen (2022) decision, all states in the United States were required to allow for concealed carry of a handgun either permitlessly or with a permit, although the difficulty in obtaining a permit varies per jurisdiction.
John Russell Carnahan is an American politician from the state of Missouri. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the U.S. representative for Missouri's 3rd congressional district from 2005 to 2013.
Proposition H was a local ordinance on the November 8, 2005 ballot in San Francisco, California, which gained national attention for its banning of most firearms within the city. The measure passed with a yes vote of 123,033 to a no vote of 89,856. The proposition was later struck down in court.
In the United States, open carry refers to the practice of visibly carrying a firearm in public places, as distinguished from concealed carry, where firearms cannot be seen by the casual observer. To "carry" in this context indicates that the firearm is kept readily accessible on the person, within a holster or attached to a sling. Carrying a firearm directly in the hands, particularly in a firing position or combat stance, is known as "brandishing" and may constitute a serious crime, but is not the mode of "carrying" discussed in this article.
The 2000 United States Senate election in Missouri was held on November 7, 2000, to select the next U.S. senator from Missouri. Incumbent Republican senator John Ashcroft lost re-election to a second term to Democratic governor Mel Carnahan despite Carnahan's death in a plane crash 20 days before Election Day. Due to the timing of Carnahan's death, state law did not allow his name to be replaced on the ballot. Newly inaugurated governor Roger Wilson appointed Mel Carnahan's widow Jean Carnahan to fill the seat pending a 2002 special election.
The 2002 United States Senate special election in Missouri was held on November 5, 2002, to decide who would serve the rest of Democrat Mel Carnahan's term, after he died while campaigning and posthumously won the 2000 election. The winner would serve the remainder of the term ending in 2007. Governor Roger Wilson appointed Carnahan's wife Jean, also a Democrat, to serve temporarily. She then decided to run to serve the remainder of the term, but she was narrowly defeated by Republican nominee Jim Talent.
Gun laws in California regulate the sale, possession, and use of firearms and ammunition in the state of California in the United States.
Gun laws in Colorado regulate the sale, possession, and use of firearms and ammunition in the state of Colorado in the United States.
Gun laws in Wisconsin regulate the sale, possession, and use of firearms and ammunition in the U.S. state of Wisconsin.
Gun laws in the District of Columbia regulate the sale, possession, and use of firearms and ammunition in Washington, D.C.
Gun laws in Nevada regulate the sale, possession, and use of firearms and ammunition in the state of Nevada in the United States.
Gun laws in New Mexico regulate the sale, possession, and use of firearms and ammunition in the state of New Mexico in the United States.
Gun laws in Texas regulate the sale, possession, and use of firearms and ammunition in the U.S. state of Texas.
Gun laws in Virginia regulate the sale, possession, and use of firearms and ammunition in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States.
The history of concealed carry in the United States is the history of public opinion, policy, and law regarding the practice of carrying concealed firearms, especially handguns.
