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Aldermen adopt ordinance updating exceptions to firearm-discharge prohibition
Summary
The Board of Aldermen voted to adopt an amendment to section 205.903 clarifying exceptions to the city's prohibition on discharging firearms to bring local code into alignment with a recent state law known in the discussion as —Blair's Law.—
The Board of Aldermen on March 6 adopted an amendment to section 205.903 of the municipal code that clarifies when a person may lawfully discharge a firearm inside city limits.
The change, explained at the Police and Municipal Courts committee meeting, was presented as a local alignment with a recent state law described in the meeting as Blair's Law, which enumerates specific exceptions to an otherwise broad prohibition on discharging a weapon within a city. Erin, identified in the meeting as a police captain, told the aldermen the state law required municipalities to add matching exceptions so residents and officers know which uses are lawful.
The ordinance keeps the city's existing exceptions and adds clarifications about circumstances such as hunting during open season and the distance from occupied structures. Councilmembers questioned several details, including what counts as an "occupied structure," whether the required distance is a mile or a quarter-mile in particular provisions, and how the new language applies to firing blanks or discharging a weapon to stop an animal attack.
Alderman Claws, chairing the committee, and other aldermen noted the difficulty of locating a place inside the city that would meet a one-mile distance requirement, and urged clearer organization of multiple related gun sections in the code so readers can find prohibitions and exceptions in the same place. Captain Erin said the amendment is intended only to address exceptions specific to firearm discharge and not to repeal other, more serious weapon offenses that remain separately codified.
After discussion, Alderman Claws moved adoption of section 205.903; Alderman Harrell seconded. The motion carried on a voice vote.
The City Clerk will place the revised language into the municipal code and staff indicated they will continue to review codification so related firearm provisions appear together.
The ordinance text adopted references the state exceptions described in the meeting; the ordinance's enforcement and any enhanced penalties remain governed by separate local and state offenses for unlawful use of a weapon.
