St. Louis gun laws are ‘common sense,’ mayor says in letter ripping Missouri AG

ST. LOUIS — Mayor Tishaura O. Jones on Thursday defended efforts to enact a new gun law in the city and blasted the state’s top law enforcement official for threatening to stop her. 

Attorney General Andrew Bailey wrote Jones last week saying her plans to prohibit “military-grade” weapons on city streets were unconstitutional, that crime was plaguing the city, and that she had “done nothing” to use existing laws to go after juveniles carrying guns.

In her reply on Thursday, Jones told Bailey he should have waited to see the legislation, which she said was well within the bounds of the law. She said Bailey’s quips about using existing laws to combat crime insulted police officers and others trying to defuse violence in the city every day. And she pointed out that the homicide rate so far this year is down more than 20% compared to last year.

“It was disappointing to see you dismiss this extraordinary work,” Jones wrote. “While we collectively have more work to do, we are encouraged by these trends and dispute your unfounded allegations.”

Bailey said on Thursday that he stood by his original assessment.

“I put the mayor on notice that her proposed ordinance would violate the right to bear arms guaranteed by the Missouri Constitution,” he said in a statement. “If she proceeds, she will be knowingly violating the Constitution, and I will take the appropriate legal action.”

The letter marked the latest salvo between a Republican attorney general looking to burnish his bona fides with the base facing a tough primary election and a Democratic mayor eager to show resolve on a core issue in a city that has long struggled with gun violence. Jones spent years warring with Bailey’s predecessor, Eric Schmitt, over abortion, police department funding and pandemic health orders before he won a seat in the U.S. Senate last year. 

The fight with Bailey kicked off last week, within hours of a press conference where Jones announced plans to move legislation through the Board of Aldermen aimed at chipping away at the city’s gun violence problem.

There were several proposals: She wanted to make it harder for minors to get guns, stop “insurrectionists” and people convicted of hate crimes from getting them at all, and rein in the kind of random gunfire that crops up on New Year’s Eve and the Fourth of July.

But the plan to prohibit “military-grade” weapons in the city stood out. Jones said she was talking specifically about AK-47s, the famous instruments of foreign insurgencies, and AR-15s, the rifles known for their roles in mass shootings at the heart of the national gun control debate.

Jones acknowledged the bill could prompt blowback from Republicans in state government, who she criticized for dismantling gun regulations and blocking the city from enacting its own. She said she expected the same treatment with the new legislation. But she said people wanted something done.

“We’re ready to fight like hell at the local level to prevent gun violence, protect our babies, and to keep our communities safe,” Jones told reporters at a press conference on Tuesday.

Republicans pounced. Legislators said banning the rifles would be illegal. And Bailey said the same thing in his letter to Jones, vowing to resist “any effort to infringe on the right of the people of Missouri to keep and bear arms.

“It is my hope that you will reverse course and use existing law to combat the crime plaguing your city, rather than choosing to target the rights of law-abiding Missourians,” he added. 

The next day, however, the Post-Dispatch obtained a draft of the proposal on “military-grade” weapons, and it did not go as far as some expected.

The bill mostly focused on writing into city code existing state and federal law on machine guns and other heavily regulated firearms. And experts said it would not actually prohibit AR-15 and AK-47 rifles as Jones suggested. 

Aides to the mayor said the bill represented progress, however. By copying state and federal laws into city code, the city could design its own penalties for violations: The draft bill would give juveniles caught with automatic weapons a second chance. Rather than potential jail time on state or federal charges, they would face fines and community service.

In addition, money collected from fines would fund city efforts to prevent violence through counseling, community engagement and job programs, a key priority for Jones.