Missouri: Comprehensive Pro-Gun Reforms Take Effect in the Show-Me State This Sunday!

Earlier this year, the Missouri General Assembly overwhelmingly passed and Governor Jay Nixon signed into law a vitally important measure expanding a variety of firearm rights for Missouri gun owners. The reforms in this bill will take effect this Sunday, August 28.  Included among the provisions in this critical bill is a goal most gun owners have been hoping to realize for years: lowering Missouri's Right-to-Carry age from the nation's highest at 23 to 21.

The NRA-backed House Bill 294, authored by state Representative Jeanie Riddle (R-20) and sponsored in the Senate by state Senator Brian Munzlinger (R-18), is a comprehensive firearm reform bill that addresses a number of Right-to-Carry issues important to Missouri’s law-abiding gun owners.  Both chambers of the Missouri General Assembly passed HB 294 by significant, bipartisan majorities.

Beginning Sunday, August 28, the Missouri gun laws will:

• Prohibit imposing a sales tax on firearms or ammunition that is higher than those taxes on sporting goods, sporting equipment, hunting equipment, and accessories;

• Remove restrictions to allow purchases of long guns by residents of non-contiguous states;

• Lower the concealed carry age to 21;

• Allow a person to possess, manufacture, transport, repair, or sell a machine gun, short-barreled rifle or shotgun, or firearm suppressor if he or she complies with federal law;

• Create the crime of fraudulent firearms purchases to penalize a person who knowingly solicits, persuades, encourages, or entices a licensed dealer or private seller of firearms or ammunition to transfer a firearm or ammunition under circumstances which the person knows would violate federal or state laws; and

• Enable members of the General Assembly and their staff who possess valid concealed carry endorsements to carry a firearm for self-defense in the Capitol.

Your National Rifle Association will continue fighting to improve Missouri gun laws.  On behalf of NRA members throughout Missouri, NRA-ILA wishes to thank state Representative Jeannie Riddle (R-20) and state Senator Brian Munzlinger (R-18) for authoring the law, the legislators in the General Assembly who voted to expand firearm freedoms, and Governor Jay Nixon for signing the bill into law!