Missouri Republican bill could shield ‘stand your ground’ shooters from lawsuits
Missouri lawmakers are weighing legislation that would prohibit certain victims of gun violence from filing civil lawsuits against the perpetrator if the shooting was found to be justified in a criminal case.
The bill, filed by Sen. Jill Carter, a Granby Republican, states that no individual can be found civilly liable for damages for conduct found to be justified under state law. This would include a 2016 so-called “stand your ground” law that allows people to use physical force to defend themselves.
Missouri lawmakers held a hearing over Carter’s bill last week, exactly two weeks after the mass shooting at the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl rally which killed one person and injured more than 20 people.
The shooting has put renewed scrutiny on the state’s loose gun laws with some attorneys saying that the shooters may have grounds for self defense arguments. Five people, including Lyndell Mays, 23, of Raytown and Dominic M. Miller, 18, of Kansas City, have been charged in the shooting in what prosecutors say stemmed from a dispute.
The Missouri Senate Transportation, Infrastructure and Public Safety Committee held an extraordinarily short hearing over Carter’s legislation, called the “Keep Your Ground Act,” last week. No one testified in favor or against the bill and Carter did not go into specific details about why she filed it.
“It basically kind of goes along with the stand your ground laws,” Carter told the committee. “It just deals with the civil liability. If you are found not guilty, just strengthens that language just a little bit. It’s one sentence.”
Carter did not respond to two requests for comment on her legislation.
However, Sen. Brian Williams, a St. Louis area Democrat on the committee, criticized the legislation in a statement to The Star, saying that after decades of Republican lawmakers loosening the state’s gun laws “Missouri now has one of the highest rates of gun violence in America.”
“The Republicans’ latest proposal to take away the rights of shooting victims to access the courts will make gun violence worse, because there will be no legal consequences for shootouts, no matter how many innocent people are caught in the crossfire,” he said.
The mass shooting in Kansas City has infuriated Missouri Democrats and gun control advocates who have for years criticized the state’s lax gun laws. Debates over gun control, including potential legislation barring minors from possessing firearms, are likely to roil the Missouri Capitol this year.
But the Democratic efforts face an uphill battle in the Republican-controlled General Assembly, which has for years relaxed firearm regulations. Republicans last year, for example, voted down a proposal to ban minors from openly carrying guns on public land without adult supervision.
The decision to hold a hearing on Carter’s legislation signals that some Missouri Republicans, in addition to pursuing looser gun laws, also plan to target the ability for victims of gun violence to hold shooters civilly liable.
Across the building in the Missouri House, however, Republicans decided not to pursue two gun-related bills this year in the wake of the shooting.
The Associated Press contributed reporting.
