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Missouri Senate Moves To Strengthen Right To Bear Arms

machine guns and sawed-off shotguns are attention getters at K.C. Police HQ. The 'streetsweeper\" is a shotgun that fires fully automatic.
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KCUR
machine guns and sawed-off shotguns are attention getters at K.C. Police HQ. The 'streetsweeper\" is a shotgun that fires fully automatic.

A Missouri Senate Committee has unanimously passed a proposed constitutional amendment that would expand the State Constitution’s right to bear arms. 

In addition to affirming the 2nd Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, the measure would require the state to defend any infringement of that right, and would include using a firearm to defend one’s family as a guaranteed constitutional right. 

Democrat Jason Holsman of Kansas City sits on the committee that approved the resolution.

“The arms of 1776 are certainly not the arms of 2013,” says Holsman.  “My role in this, the issue is rather if the people can vote on this determination, and I am a fan of letting the people decide, and so I voted ‘yes’ to give them that option.”

If approved by both the Senate and House, it would go before Missouri voters in November of 2014.

Marshall Griffin is the Statehouse reporter for St. Louis Public Radio.
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