ST. LOUIS — As Central Visual and Performing Arts High School (CVPA) students and staff return to school Tuesday, lawmakers in Jefferson City are once again trying to pass a red flag law.
It’s something top republicans at the statehouse have refused to entertain.
The CVPA community is still healing after the tragic shooting that took away a student and a teacher.
State Representative Peter Merideth, (D)-St. Louis said he wants to prevent this from happening again with a red flag law.
“Police said under Missouri laws, we can't do anything. The parents did their best. They tried to have the gun removed and taken to a neighbor's house, but the kid got it back and the shooting happened. That's just a failure of our laws here in Missouri,” Merideth said.
Merideth said the law he is proposing is similar to one passed in Florida. It would allow someone to report a person, who has a gun, to police if they believe the gun owner is a threat to themselves or someone else.
“They have to get essentially something similar to a warrant from the court where a judge signs off and says...yes...you meet these standards to take the gun. The person is also entitled the very next business day to a hearing if they want to contest that and get their guns back,” Merideth said.
Representative Tony Lovasco, (R)-St. Charles County, said he is against red flag laws and believes if passed it would take rights away from Missourians.
“It's one thing to have a discussion about who can be a prohibited possessor and who is legally able to have a weapon. It's another thing to say that simply based on an accusation or an assumption that someone has committed harm, that we're going to take their property. I wouldn't support that for any other kind of property. Why would I support it for guns?” Lovasco said.
Lovasco said instead of a red flag law he’d like to see the state put money into school security.
“Obviously we provide lots of money to schools, to parks, all kinds of public buildings, but we don't necessarily look at security as a separate line item to be looked at and analyzed. To me, if we're not going through and actually following up to make sure that our buildings and our people are safe, I think that's the biggest problem that we've got here,” Lovasco said.
Merideth said next, he hopes to get the bill assigned to a committee and then hopefully get a hearing scheduled.
Lovasco said not much has changed in the republican supermajority which is very much opposed to it.