KANSAS CITY (AP) - State lawmakers from Missouri and Kansas are pushing similar bills that would restrict firearms for people with domestic violence or stalking restraining orders or convictions, but a pair of Missouri state representatives called the legislation a publicity stunt with no chance of passage.
"We would never look at anything like this," said Rick Brattin, a Harrisonville, Missouri, Republican. "We're not in favor of domestic violence, but with our (concealed carry) permits, someone may not like the fact that you're carrying a weapon and say they feel they're being threatened."
Kansas Rep. Barbara Bollier joined Missouri Rep. Stacey Newman at Jackson County, Missouri, prosecutor Jean Peters Baker's office on Friday to pitch the bills that were recently introduced in Topeka and Jefferson City, the Kansas City Star reported.
Newman, a Democrat from Richmond Heights in St. Louis County, said her bill includes language that would allow law enforcement and family members to restrict those considered "in crisis" from gun possession. She said the measure is similar to California legislation signed into law soon after the mass shootings near the University of California-Santa Barbara campus last year.
"The public gets it completely," said Bollier, a Mission Hills Republican and former practicing physician.
Newman's bill is unlikely to get a warm reception in Jefferson City, said two Missouri representatives who are strong gun-rights advocates.
Rep. Joe Don McGaugh, a Carrollton Republican, said the bill is "patently unconstitutional" because it has too few protections for gun owners before a court strips them of their Second Amendment rights.
"Everyone wants to keep firearms out of the hands of someone who is not competent to own them," McGaugh said. "But I think what we should concentrate on is the individual and not the gun."
Newman's bill could be used to harass law-abiding gun owners, Brattin said, and probably wouldn't get a hearing.