Missouri Lawmaker Proposes Bill To Regulate Guns Like Abortions

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[news]

A Missouri lawmaker is introducing a bill that would subject gun buyers in the state to the same kind of restrictions that women face if they choose to have an abortion.

State Rep. Stacey Newman (D-St. Louis) has pre-filed a bill for the state legislature's 2016 session that would require buyers to wait 72 hours to make a gun purchase, which they would only be able to do at a store at least 120 miles from their home. Women in the state must wait 72 hours before they can get an abortion and the 120-mile restriction is intended to draw attention to the long distances that women must travel to have one.

Newman told The Huffington Post that since Missouri has one of the strictest abortion regulation states in the country, it makes sense to use similar restrictions to lower the high gun violence rates.

"If the appetite is for more and more reproductive restrictions, then it makes sense if to apply those to gun purchases," she said. 

 

"My colleagues leave me no choice, because all we hear about is pro-life, pro-life pro-life." 

 

The bill would require gun buyers to undergo an evaluation and receive counseling from a physician about the risks associated with owning a gun. Women in Missouri must sign a consent form 72 hours before an abortion, be given a chance to look at an ultrasound of the baby and be informed about potential health hazards of the procedure, according to the Columbia Daily Tribune. 

 

Under Newman's bill, the gun purchaser would be required to tour an emergency trauma center between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. on a weekend when firearms victims are present and meet with at least two families affected by gun violence as well as two people who have officiated the funerals of minors who were shot dead. The Washington Post reported in October that there had been more shootings by toddlers in Missouri than any other state.

 

 "We talk about life all the time, but when the answer comes to protecting it, the answer is more guns," she told HuffPost. "It's gotten out of hand."

 

The bill is unlikely to pass, but Newman's effort highlights the hypocrisy between how women's bodies and guns are regulated in the United States. On Thursday, an amendment to require background checks on all gun purchases failed in the Senate, despite two mass shootings in the last week.

Missouri State Sen. Brian Munzlinger (R-Hannibal) told the Columbia Daily Tribune that abortion and gun violence were two entirely separate issues.

“It is apples and oranges,” he told the paper. “There is no correlation between them.”

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