imported post
Well here is her first response:
Ms. Keller,
I just got done reading your article “Bill would end
bans on carrying guns openly”. The state passed the
preemption statue in 1985 and gave counties and cities
the ability to regulate “weapons readily capable of
lethal use”. The city of Cape Girardeau and others
throughout the state have taken away the rights of
citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves.
Carl Kinnison took the same oath of office I did. We
are to protect and defend the constitution of this
state. Here is what the Missouri Supreme Court had to
say about article 1 section 23 of the Missouri
Constitution. In State v. Wilforth, the court stated:
We do not desire to be understood as maintaining
that in regulating the manner of bearing arms the
authority of the legislature has no other limit than
its own discretion. A statute which, under the
pretense of regulating, amounts to a destruction of
the right, or which requires arms to be so borne as to
render them wholly useless for purposes of defense,
would be clearly unconstitutional.
Then again in State v. White, the court stated: The
evident purpose of section 17, art. 2, is to render
the citizen secure in his home, his person, and his
property. Its purpose is to deny to the Legislature
the power to take away the right of the citizen to
resist aggression, force, and wrong at the hands of
another. By no possible construction can that section
of the Constitution be held to guarantee to the
citizen the right to keep and bear arms for the
purpose of his own aggression, wrong, or assault upon
the person or property of another. The right of the
citizen to keep and bear arms for his own protection
or in aid of the civil power, when thereto legally
summoned, is the only right guaranteed to the citizen.
Senator Jason Crowell should be commended for putting
forth this much needed piece of legislation. Somebody
open carrying in the City of Jackson, should not
become a criminal because they crossed the city limits
of Cape Girardeau.
I look forward to your next informed article on the
rights our citizens enjoy here in Missouri.
Shawn Cassidy
You can send your letters here:
rkeller@semissourian.com