St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones (D) already admitted that she knows gun control doesn’t work, but knowing about the ineffectiveness of such laws hasn’t stopped Jones from pursuing even more schemes to curb citizens’ civil rights.
While speaking at a “Gun Violence Roundtable,” Jones announced several new anti-gun proposals, including a ban on what the mayor calls “military-grade weapons,” action on so-called “ghost guns” and a proposal to prevent the transfer or sale of guns to young adults. Another of Jones’ proposals would prohibit anyone convicted of insurrection or hate crimes from having guns in St. Louis.
Shortly after Jones announced her latest proposals, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey (R) pointed out the fallacy of the various schemes. Bailey sent a letter to Jones in which he vowed to resist “any effort to infringe on the right of the people of Missouri to keep and bear arms.”
“It is my hope that you will reverse course and use existing law to combat the crime plaguing your city, rather than choosing to target the rights of law-abiding Missourians,” wrote Bailey. “In other words, I encourage you to go after criminals, not guns.”
In the letter, Bailey referenced Jones’ texts to her father in which she expressed her skepticism on the effectiveness of gun control. He then made it clear that he will do his job of protecting the rights of Missouri gun owners.
“By this letter, let me be clear—I will zealously perform my constitutional duty to defend the rights of each law-abiding citizen to ‘keep and bear arms … in defense of [their] home, person, family and property…’ which is the promise made to them by the Missouri Constitution,” he wrote.
Bailey wasn’t the only one in the state who expressed dismay with Mayor Jones’ latest proposals. State Rep. Jim Murphy (R) said the move is not only unwise but illegal.
“It’s null and void,” Rep. Murphy told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “They don’t have the right to do that. State laws specifically say they have no right to do that.”
Reverberations from Jones’ latest proposals were felt as far away as the governor’s mansion in Jefferson City.
“I think you’ve got to be very careful to stay in your lanes,” Gov. Mike Parson (R) told local media. “You know, so cities can’t just go out there and do what they want to do. And when there’s a constitutional issue to it, or state legislatures do it, they can’t supersede that.
“I mean, just like we can’t supersede the federal government. I wish it was that easy because there’s a lot of things I wouldn’t like to do the federal government mandates me to do.”
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