MO: A year later, concealed guns law in effect almost everywhere

The Kansas City Star is reporting that despite some initial confusion and several anti-gun lawsuits, Missourians everywhere outside St. Louis city and county today can apply for concealed gun permits.

The newspaper reports the once confusing patchwork of counties issuing permits has cleared up, and that contrary to some predictions, there appears to be neither a verifiable spike nor decline in gun crimes attributable to the law.

"We heard before that bar fights were going to turn into gun fights and all that," said Tim Oliver, a Boone County firearms trainer. "It just hasn't been a problem anywhere."

From the story:

Like Oliver, Kansas City attorney Richard Miller isn't aware of major problems caused by Missouri concealed gun permit holders. But [he claims] that's partly because the names of permit holders are kept secret under the state law.

"Is there any proof out there that concealed-carry holders are preventing crimes, which was one of their arguments? We'll never know that," said Miller, one of the attorneys who challenged the constitutionality of the law. "Is there any proof that conceal-carry holders are engaged in criminal activity? We'll never know that, because the permits are closed records."

This assertion is ironic, considering that Ohio’s concealed handgun license records are NOT protected, and despite the fact that the Ohio Newspaper Association used these same excuses when lobbying for the Media Access Loophole, the provision is not being used for the reasons they claimed. Media still report daily on gun crimes, and never note the fact that the crimes are constantly committed by people WITHOUT licenses. Everything that is needed to determine that Ohio CHL-holders are law-abiding can be obtained from the Attorney General's annual report, which shows that just 0.09% of licenses had to be revoked for any reason, including the death of the license-holder.

As of Friday, 15,442 concealed gun background check applications had been submitted to the Highway Patrol, which amounts to 0.27% of the state population. In Ohio, 0.398% of the population have obtained licenses in the first 9 months, which amounts to nearly 1 percent of eligible [of age] applicants.

The newspaper reports that separate bills attempting to fix a funding flaw in the original law have been endorsed by House and Senate committees. The bills would allow the fees to cover all costs related to processing concealed gun permits, and would let counties seek state reimbursement if their costs exceeded the maximum $100 fee. Passage of the legislation could persuade St. Louis to start issuing concealed gun permits.

The newspaper reports the city already has spent about $30,000 (!! - Ohio sheriffs paid around $8000 for theirs) on an electronic fingerprint scanner, has trained its personnel and developed procedures to issue permits, said Mike Guzy, administrative assistant to St. Louis Sheriff James Murphy.

"We're ready to go if they'll fix the law," Guzy said.