Kansas City Democrat: Children and felons allowed to carry guns in public places

(From Ingrid Burnett, D-Kansas City)

There was much in the media last weekend regarding the failure of the MO House of Representatives to accept an amendment on a bill to reduce crime that would prohibit children from carrying guns on public land without adult supervision. The amendment was introduced on HB 301 when it came up for debate on the House Floor on Feb 8. 

Over the interim last summer, a bi-partisan committee constructed HB 301 which included the same language of the amendment but was stripped out during a Republican majority committee hearing.

Current statute does not have an age limit for possessing firearms, and law enforcement officers in St. Louis are reporting that they have encountered children as young as 8 years old roaming the streets carrying AR-15 automatic rifles. 

Because the law stipulates that without evidence of an intent to harm someone or commit a crime, the police have no authority to detain the children or confiscate their weapons as they would if the same children were in possession of alcohol. 

I guess the alcohol industry doesn’t have the same kind of lobbying power as the NRA, because by a recorded vote of 108-38, and on strict party lines, the amendment offered by St. Louis Rep Donna Baringer was voted down. My favorite media coverage is by Vanity Fair, but it was also picked up by MSNBC, The Guardian, The Independent, and Washington Post among others.

What is particularly egregious about HB301 is that it doesn’t make any effort to reduce crime by prevention, but just enhances penalties and provides extra response after a crime has occurred, and it restores gun rights to non-violent felons by specifying that possession of firearms would remain a criminal offense for those convicted of violent felonies.

Another provision of the bill would give the governor the authority to appoint a special prosecutor who would have exclusive jurisdiction over most violent crimes in St. Louis city, thus supplanting the elected local prosecutor. The special prosecutor would not have to be a city resident. 

This is not the first attempt by Gov. Mike Parson and legislative Republicans to strip authority from St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner. She is the only elected Black woman prosecutor in Missouri, and she was elected by the citizens in St Louis. 

St. Louis representatives strongly opposed this measure, and argued passionately against it, but were shut down after being told to sit down, and the debate was ended by a procedural motion.

In the end, HB 301 passed out of the House the following day. Not coincidentally, the same day, the House Crime Prevention and Public Safety Committee considered six separate, but similar, bills to strip St. Louis’ municipal government of control over its police department and place the agency back under the authority of a state board controlled by the governor. The department had been under state control for more than 150 years until 2012 when 63.9 percent of Missouri voters approved a ballot measure restoring local control.

All of this has had a chilling effect on the relations between the 2 sides of the aisle so I don’t expect many valentines to be shared tomorrow.

Budget Bill to Supplement 2023 Wins House Approval

On Feb. 9 we voted to grant first-round approval to a nearly $627.15 million emergency supplemental appropriations bill for the FY 2023 state budget. 

Usually, supplemental bills receive little opposition or amending. They are intended to adjust what was passed during the regular budgeting cycle. In its current state, State workers will receive an immediate 8.7 percent pay raise in this proposal. The House Budget Committee stripped raises to lawmakers and trimmed raises to statewide elected officials. Hopefully, my fellow lawmakers will grant final passage to the bill so the raises can take effect on March 1. 

Governor Parson said the increase is necessary to offset high inflation and help stem a recent exodus of state workers to higher-paying private sector jobs that have left the state with about 7,000 open positions.

Revenue Report for January Sabotaged by Fraud Attempt

An attempted fraud scheme made it appear that net state general revenue collections for January 2023 had jumped a whopping 55.1 percent compared to January 2022 according to a Feb. 8 news release from the Missouri Office of Budget and Planning announcing the state revenue collections for the month. 

The release made just a passing reference to the fraud in a footnote that noted the reported January collections are inaccurate because of the attempt. 

Later, however, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported the Missouri Department of Revenue discovered the scheme when it received a flood of fraudulent tax payments in late January. A department spokeswoman told the paper the false payments were intended to trigger refunds from the department’s payment system but that no taxpayer money was lost.

Before the fraud skewed the numbers, revenue collections had been expected to plummet in January with the implementation of a massive income tax cut the legislature enacted last fall. State budget officials said the reversal of the fraudulent payments will be reflected in the February revenue numbers.