The St. Louis Board of Aldermen approved a bill that requires gun owners desiring to display their firearms to obtain a permit.
Board Bill 29 currently is awaiting St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones’ final approval and would require concealed carry permit holders to be at least 19 years old.
“We have seen anyone openly carrying a gun without a concealed carry permit, like this law outlines, who probably shouldn’t be,” Ward 1 Alderwoman Anne Schweitzer told Fox News. “I think it’s a very good step forward for the City of St. Louis to take some control back.”
However, a former candidate for Congress says the bill is misguided.
“We have all these murders, teens being killed and people getting shot and St. Louis wants to resolve this by requiring a CCW license to carry but it does not resolve the problem because it’s not the CCW people that are shooting,” said Paul Berry, a Republican politician who campaigned to represent Missouri's 2nd Congressional district last year.
St. Louis ranked in second place after New Orleans for homicide rates among 75 U.S. largest cities, according to a 2022 Wirepoints report. St. Louis had 68.2 homicides per 100,000 population compared to 74.3 in New Orleans followed by Baltimore with 58.1, Detroit at 48.9, and Memphis at 45.9.
“What's going to solve the problem is education and economic opportunity,” Berry told the St. Louis Record. “As long as people are poor, desperate, and don't have anything to live for, they're going to make stupid mistakes.”
State law currently does not require a CCW license to conceal carry, according to USConcealedCarry.com.
But buildings owned, leased, and controlled by a Missouri municipality or county can require a CCP for open carry.
"Their statute is a relic that's left over," Berry said in an interview. "Anytime you're offering false solutions, you're offering false hopes to the public and there's nothing the city of St. Louis is presenting that's putting them in a position where they're going to be able to right the ship when it comes to crime in St. Louis."
In a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision, N.Y. State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, good or proper cause requirements in concealed carry weapon permitting were eliminated with Justice Clarence Thomas ruling that permit regimes that do not require applicants to show an atypical need for armed self-defense are acceptable.
"Legal gun owners who unwittingly go into a county that may have passed this type of law may be unaware and will be subject to criminal charges, fines, and gun seizures," Berry added.