Local officials support stricter penalties for gun violence

Local law enforcement support efforts recently proposed in the Missouri General Assembly to reduce gun violence in the state by increasing punishments for weapons-related crimes.

Three Republican senators proposed bills during a Senate judiciary committee hearing that aim to modify or increase penalties for crimes related to gun use. On the same day, House Democrats highlighted several bills to address firearm violence.

Senate bills 562 and 601 aim to increase or modify punishments for armed criminal actions. Senate Bill 538 modifies penalties related to unlawful possession of a firearm.

Among the Republican bills, SB 601 would increase minimum sentences for crimes committed with a deadly weapon, among other measures.

Sen. Tony Luetkemeyer, R-Parkville, said the bill is aimed at reducing the release of violent offenders on parole.

“We must acknowledge that the proper place for violent criminals is in prison — not on probation,” Luetkemeyer said. “Just like mass incarceration for minor crime is misguided, so too is mass release for violent crime.”

Poplar Bluff Police Chief Danny Whiteley believes the “enhanced minimum mandatory sentences will have drastically more effect on gun violence than this politically correct feel-good mentality.

“The old saying is when you touch your finger to a hot stove, you don’t do it a second time because it hurt.”

Whiteley said he knows from experience “when we, in local law enforcement, have the weight (federal prosecution) in dealing with guns crimes, it effects the suspects a whole lot more when they know they are going to do 85% of their time.”

That, according to Whiteley, is an indication that “harsher penalties effect criminal thinking.”

Butler County Sheriff Mark Dobbs also would like to see harsher punishments for those who commit gun violence.

The state, Whiteley said, has “plenty of laws on the books. They just need to be enforced fully.”

Whiteley said he also believes “we need fully served sentences that will make the border-line criminal rethink using a firearm in a crime.

“They need to be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.”

Like Whiteley, Dobbs supports the proposed bills related to penalties, but is against proposed House Bill 1829.

That bill would prohibit anyone from possessing a firearm after a judge determined they are a risk to themselves or others.

The bill would establish the “Extreme Risk Protection Act,” and make it a crime to possess a firearm while subject to an extreme risk protection order.

That order, much like an ex-parte order, Dobbs said, could be filed with the court by anyone.

The petitioner, the bill says, would have to have a close relationship with the other person, someone who poses a significant risk of physical injury.

“I’m just in fear people would misuse it as a revenge tool,” the same way ex-partes are sometimes misused, Dobbs said.

A judge reportedly may issue the order without notice to the respondent.

“I don’t like that because it is a direct revocation of someone’s Second Amendment rights without due process,” Dobbs said. “Then, they must conduct a hearing in five days, but (the person) is stripped of their firearms for five days” because law enforcement will be ordered to seize the respondent’s firearms.

Dobbs said he just doesn’t agree with one citizen having the ability to petition the court to revoke Second Amendment rights of another.

“I don’t like this at all,” he said.

Some of the legislation Democrats also discussed include House Bill 1260, which would prohibit certain people, like those convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence, from possessing a gun and would bring Missouri law into conformity with federal law.

With the proposed bills, Dobbs said, he is concerned about their broadness and the differences between “where they start and where they end up.”

That, he said, is the same for any new law.

“It may look good on paper, but you have concerns about how will the law end up; will it be used for its actual purpose,” Dobbs said.

(The Missouri News Network contributed to this report.)