February 10, 2023 12:03 PM UTC

Gun-Toting Kids? Missouri Republicans Say Pack That Heat

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• by: Colorado Pols

The Washington Post’s Timothy Bella reports on a vote in the GOP-dominated Missouri House of Representatives so sketchy that even the most ardent gun rights supporters have to wonder if they haven’t taken the concept of “guns for everyone” a step too far:

The Republican-controlled Missouri House of Representatives rejected a proposal Wednesday that would have banned children from being able to openly carry firearms on public land without adult supervision.

The proposal, which was part of a long debate in the chamber on how to fight crime in St. Louis, was defeated by a vote of 104-39, with just one Republican voting in support of the ban. After the amendment on the open-carry restrictions for minors was initially supported by the Republican legislator sponsoring a broader crime bill, GOP lawmakers on a committee that he leads removed the firearms provision last week…

State Rep. Donna Baringer (D), who represents St. Louis and sponsored the amendment to H.B. 301, said she brought the proposal to the chamber after police in her district requested tighter regulations to stop “14-year-olds walking down the middle of the street in the city of St. Louis carrying AR-15s.”

Even though it’s not (yet) legal for children in Missouri to own guns, and the consequences of individuals without well-developed adult sensibilities including a daily weapon as a fashion accessory are well-known, every Missouri House Republican save one voted to let the practice continue:

“I just have a different approach for addressing public safety that doesn’t deprive people, who have done nothing to any other person, who will commit no violence, from their freedom,” Republican state Rep. Bill Hardwick, who represents Pulaski County and Fort Leonard Wood, told the Post-Dispatch.

And with that, children in Missouri who can’t legally own a gun can parade it down the street without an adult in sight! If that makes sense to you, all we can say is your name must be Kyle Rittenhouse, because this twisted logic is why he’s not in prison for killing two people. It should not make sense to any reasonable person.

But when it comes to guns in America, all too often reason has no relationship with policy.