ST. LOUIS, Missouri — A bill to ban the open carry of firearms in St. Louis city limits is heading to Mayor Tishaura Jones' desk.
The Board of Aldermen voted unanimously to adopt the measure on Friday morning, but state law blocks it from taking immediate effect.
"That's always the fun part of this job, dealing with Jeff City," Alderman Joe Vollmer remarked after the vote.
He compared the open carry ban to a similar policy that was widely adopted across rowdy, gun-slinging frontier towns more than 140 years ago back when U.S. Marshals Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday were pursuing highway robbers and vigilantes at the O.K. Corral.
"When they cleaned up Tombstone and Dodge City, what was the first thing they did? They made them check their guns at the city limits," Vollmer said. "It seemed to work back then. And right now we have the Wild West occurring in our own city. So anything we can do to get these guns off the street."
Voters could potentially get the chance to activate the city's open carry ban in next November's election if organizers can successfully campaign to put the constitutional question on the ballot.
"I think this will help turnout dramatically," bill sponsor Rasheen Aldridge, 14th Ward Alderman, said on Friday.
Clergy members and faith leaders also pledged their support for the plan.
"I would get out and I would beat the bushes to make sure that something like this passes," Reverend Darryl Gray said.
City leaders said putting this open carry ban on the books now gives police a head start on enforcing it later.
"Hopefully it'll be a peaceful interaction," Vollmer said. "These gentlemen and ladies of our police force go through hell every day. I can't imagine doing their job when guns are so prominent everywhere."
The proposal would not outlaw concealed carry of legal firearms.
"You still can have your gun concealed," Aldridge explained. "The goal is not having people walk down the streets with AK 47s or their handgun."
