Local gun control is stupid just on the surface of things. The worst they can charge anyone with is a misdemeanor, and if a felony for committing armed robbery or murder won't deter some people from criminal acts, what do they think the "threat" of a misdemeanor will do.
But the city of Saint Louis really wants one regarding gun storage in cars, and they're headed to court now to try and get it.
Currently, Missouri has a preemption law. What that means is that any gun control measures have to come from the state. However, the city wants one mandating that people have to have any firearms left in their vehicle locked up. This is supposed to reduce gun thefts from vehicles, which is a bit of a problem there.
Unfortunately, they tried it and even made an arrest, though charges were dropped. That sparked a lawsuit, which got the ordinance slapped down as illegal.
So far, so good.
The city has decided to appeal the decision.
Attorneys for the city and for Roth agree that state law places limits on local gun regulations. But they disagree about the extent of those limits.
The state law in question has two key subsections. The first says the General Assembly "occupies and pre-empts the entire field of legislation touching in any way firearms, components, ammunition and supplies to the complete exclusion of any order, ordinance or regulation by any political subdivision of this state."
A second subsection says local political subdivisions cannot pass any regulations on "the sale, purchase, purchase delay, transfer, ownership, use, keeping, possession, bearing, transportation, licensing, permit, registration, taxation other than sales and compensating use taxes or other controls on firearms, components, ammunition, and supplies."
Roth's attorney, Matt Vianello, told the court it was the broader first subsection that set the limits on what's legally known as preemption — where a higher level of government sets limits on a lower level of government. Judges, he said, have to look at the plain language of the law to determine how far the General Assembly intended it to go.
"Their intent is clear: uniform firearm legislation throughout the state, so that you don't have a hodgepodge of regulation just because you cross Skinker Boulevard coming into the city of St Louis," Vianello said.
Nathan Puckett, an attorney for the city, told the court that the second subsection — which lists specific categories — was where the judges should look to decide the validity of the ordinance.
Puckett claims that since the ordinance deals with storage, it's exempt.
Vianello counters that by pointing out that because it regulates storage in a vehicle, it impacts transportation and possession of a firearm, especially if people coming into the city have to decide to leave the gun at home so as not to violate the city's law.
The fact that Missouri's preemption law is vague enough for this to even be considered is more than a bit of a problem, to say the least. Georgia's, for example, allows only one specific exception, which is discharging a firearm in the city limits. That's it.
Arguments were heard on Thursday, and there's no early indication I can find as of this writing as to which way the court might be leaning, but the reality is that if the court finds for Saint Louis, I expect the state legislature to close that up nice and tight in their next session, thus killing the law anyway.
Let's understand that, yeah, if you're going to leave a gun in your car, you really should secure it in some way.
However, we should also understand that the reason a lot of guns get left in cars is because of gun-free zones. People would have their guns on their person were it not for laws prohibiting them from carrying a gun into a particular establishment in the first place.
Saint Louis has no interest in addressing that, though, because they like gun-free zones.
The rest of the state isn't quite on the same page, so even if Saint Louis wins, expect them to lose in the long term.
