A Missouri Senate committee is considering two bills that would repeal limitations on the carry and use of firearms.
Senate Bill 74, sponsored by Stone County Republican Sen. Brad Hudson, would bar cities and counties from imposing their own open carry restrictions.
If passed, the bill would be in conflict with local laws in municipalities including St. Louis. The St. Louis Board of Aldermen voted to prohibit people without concealed carry permits from openly carrying firearms in 2023.
Mary Gross, a volunteer for Moms Demand Action, was among those who testified in opposition to the bill at a hearing Monday. Gross said that the bill would interfere with local autonomy, and that cities such as St. Louis face different challenges and should be able to make their own rules.
“Consider the county where the bill sponsor lives, Stone County, has a population density of 70 people per square mile,” Gross said. “St. Louis city has a population density of 5,000 people per square mile.”
The other measure, Senate Bill 147, contains a wide array of changes, including making someone who uses a gun in self-defense immune to prosecution or civil action.
The bill also includes a provision that someone who kills another person with a gun in self-defense would be presumed to be acting reasonably, removing the burden of proof.
SB 147’s sponsor, Jefferson County Republican Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman, has introduced similar legislation in past years.
“We have heard so many gun bills over and over again,” Coleman said. “This is what the state law would be according to Mary Elizabeth Coleman.”
Members of law enforcement and the justice system voiced opposition, saying that the bill would amount to allowing people to kill without consequence.
“All you have to do is say, someone threatened me, and now I can kill them,” said Parke Stevens from the Missouri Association of Prosecuting Attorneys. “This is not the state or the method to make murder legal.”
Sharon Geuea Jones, who testified in opposition for the Missouri NAACP, brought up the case of Ralph Yarl, a 16-year-old who was shot in Kansas City in 2023 after ringing the wrong doorbell. The shooter, Andrew Lester, has said he acted out of fear.
Missouri resident Susan Myers spoke in favor of both bills. She said removing restrictions would allow women to better protect themselves.
“Removing dangerous and deadly gun-free zones from Missouri statute continues to be the top priority for women of the state who carry for self-defense,” Meyers said.
Missouri already has some of the least restrictive gun laws in the country.
The committee approved a bill that would allow guns on public transportation in the same meeting.
The River City Journalism Fund supports St. Louis Public Radio's Statehouse internship. Evy Lewis is the 2025 reporting intern. See rcjf.org for more information about the fund, which seeks to advance journalism in St. Louis.
