So far, concealed gun law has had little impact

ST. LOUIS -- Nearly two years after Missourians were given the right to carry concealed firearms, the law appears to have had little impact, advocates on both sides of the issue say.

Crime has not dropped since residents were allowed to carry guns, but neither has the number of unjustified or accidental shootings risen, police said.

"To be honest, it's really been a nonevent," St. Louis County police chief Jerry Lee told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

About 1,500 permits have been issued in the county, which has about one million residents, or about 1.5 for every 1,000 people. In the much less densely populated Franklin County, the ratio is 6.5 per 1,000.

When the Legislature approved permits for concealed carry guns in 2004, the Missouri State Highway Patrol estimated 60,000 permits would be issued statewide the first year.

"We were nowhere near that," Capt. Chris Ricks said recently.

The patrol processed about 23,000 criminal background checks for permits in 2004 and 2005. The permits are issued by local sheriffs or, in the case of St. Louis County, the county police.

Ricks said it's impossible to estimate the total number of Missourians carrying guns because the law allows anyone who meets the requirements to keep a loaded gun in a vehicle without getting a permit.

Sheriffs were flooded with applications in the first weeks after the law was passed, but that has slowed considerably, to about a dozen a week in most St. Louis area counties. Some say they have more applicants shortly after a local instructor holds a gun safety course; attendance is required for a permit.

"There's not even a clear profile of a typical applicant," said St. Charles County Sheriff Tom Neer. "They are rich, poor, black and white."

He added, "Other than being time-consuming ... there's been not much of an impact on our agency."

Each county in the St. Louis area has denied about a dozen applications, mostly because a record check uncovers an old criminal conviction.

"I still don't think it makes any sense for all of us to be packing guns in our pocketbooks and our cars," said St. Louis Alderman Lyda Krewson, who was widowed in 1995 by an armed carjacker and who lobbied against the law. "We just have a situation where there are more guns on the street."

She added, "I don't think as a public that we are safer or better off."

Zachary Bauer, a computer graphics designer who co-founded a group called Missouri Carry, said it would be wrong to expect a noticeable effect on crime right away.

"It is not going to solve crime," Bauer said. "We're still going to have crime. But now at least people have a way to protect themselves."

Joe Mokwa of St. Louis was one of several police chiefs who campaigned against concealed-carry legislation. He said his concern that criminals would get ahold of guns left by law-abiding people in parked cars has proven true.

He noted a case in August 2004, when police exchanged shots at a fast food restaurant with occupants of a stolen truck whose owner had left his handgun inside. Mokwa said several people have reported the theft of weapons from a car, although the department does not keep statistics on such thefts.

Missouri Carry sells vehicle gun safes, to cut down on such thefts.

"You don't want to leave your gun in your car if you don't have to," Bauer said. "It's not basic gun safety."

Jefferson County Sheriff Oliver Boyer said many officials worried that the mandatory eight-hour gun safety course was too basic. The Missouri Sheriff's Association wants the Legislature to expand that to 40 hours of training.