Governor Mike Parson says Missouri needs to fundamentally look at what needs to be done and what can be done better to prevent mass shootings. Earlier this month, at least 31 people were killed in shooting sprees in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio. At the State Fair in Sedalia, Parson, a Republican, says various measures could be considered.
“The argument of gun control is going to be here for a long time and people are going to argue that. I’m going to be adamant to people that are legal citizens in this state on their Second Amendment Rights – their right to bear arms. You’ve got to be very careful not to take their rights away,” he says. “I think we need to look at all things that we can hopefully get that done, whether that means more law enforcement on the ground, whether that means the mental health side of it, whether that means people in social media today some of the things they’re putting out. Yeah, I think they should be flagged sometimes. If you’re threatening to kill somebody, somebody better know you’re doing that.”
Parson points to the social environment that we are in today.
“We’ve got three cities in the top 12 in the United States,” says Parson.
St. Louis, Kansas City and Springfield rank among the most dangerous cities in America, based on violent crime statistics.
Missouri does not require a permit to openly carry firearms for those 19 years or older. A man tested out the waters earlier this month when he walked into a Springfield Walmart with a rifle, body armor and several rounds of ammunition. Twenty-year-old Dmitriy Andreychenko was videotaping the whole incident on his phone and scared customers out of the store. He has been charged with making a terrorist threat and told law enforcement he was checking to see whether the store would honor his constitutional right to carry a gun. The event happened days after the massacres in El Paso and Dayton.
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