Missouri ban on felons carrying guns ruled constitutional

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) - A recent amendment to the state constitution doesn't mean some felons now can carry guns, The Missouri Supreme Court ruled Tuesday, affirming the status of current law.

The 5-2 ruling brings clarity to a constitutional change that's led to confusion over whether nonviolent felons now should be allowed to carry guns.

At issue is a 2014 constitutional amendment making the right to bear arms "unalienable" and restrictions subject to strict scrutiny. Amendment 5 specified that lawmakers can limit the rights of "violent" felons, raising questions about what that means for nonviolent felons.

The case in front of the high court stems from a man who was previously convicted of unlawful use of a weapon - a nonviolent felony - and later charged with unlawful possession of a firearm. Pierre Clay, from St. Louis, asked judges to throw out the charge, arguing that the new constitutional amendment allows him to carry a gun.

But Supreme Court justices ruled that the current ban on felons, including nonviolent felons, from possessing firearms is constitutional.

The ruling said the Legislature is limited in adopting laws when "expressly prohibited" by the Missouri Constitution but the new amendment doesn't address nonviolent felons. It also said that because the state's high court always has applied strict scrutiny to laws over the right to bear arms, the amendment did not make any substantial changes.

"The amendment, rather, was an expression or declaration of existing rights," the ruling said. "It simply enshrined the status quo as to the right to bear arms."

Attorney Dave Roland, who represented Clay, disputed that Tuesday, saying in a statement that amendment was intended to establish "the most stringent constitutional protections possible" for the right to bear arms.

"The people used the most powerful language available to them to demand protection for their rights to defend themselves using firearms," said Roland, who is the co-founder of the group Freedom Center of Missouri, which focuses on individual liberties and limited government. "The majority opinion openly defies the people's authority to protect this right or any other constitutional right."

He added that Clay now faces time in prison for exercising his "constitutional right" to carry a gun for defense.

The Supreme Court previously upheld the felon-firearm ban in crimes that occurred before the 2014 amendment.