'Sensible Missouri' wants local control of guns

"This is not a partisan effort, this is an effort we believe to be public safety," says Judge Jimmie Edwards.
© Tribune Photo/ROBERT FRANKLIN / USA TODAY NETWORK
Photo credit Handguns in case

A group in Missouri is pushing for a way to allow local communities the ability to regulate gun laws. Calling themselves "Sensible Missouri", the group is starting the initiative process to amend the Missouri constitution.

"We simply want counties to be able to decide, for themselves, according to their own needs, what sort of firearm regulations, if any, the county would like," says UMSL Criminology Professor Emeritus Rick Rosenfeld of the possible amendments.

Rosenfeld says the group has three possible amendments that they will gauge support for them through polling this summer.

"Our focus is not about gun ownership, our initiative is not about possessing guns, or the right of any individual to defend himself or herself or themselves with a weapon," says former St Louis Circuit Judge Jimmie Edwards, "those matters have already been resolved. They've been resolved by the United States Supreme Court and the Second Amendment."

"What we want to do is to be able to engage in permissible regulations at a local level consistent with United States Supreme Court decisions, Missouri Supreme Court Decisions, Missouri statutes as well as the second amendment," says Edwards.

Edwards says a pair of recent US Supreme Court cases have given their group a "road map" to follow in their efforts.

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