By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
A massive anti-crime measure is working its way through the Missouri legislative session, hoping to avoid death through a filibuster or by veto.
State Sen. Tony Luetkemeyer of Parkville succeeded in guiding his legislation through the General Assembly last year only to see it vetoed by Gov. Mike Parson.
Luetkemeyer is working on two fronts to get the legislation to the finish line with less than a month left in the session, with his bill now in the House and a nearly identical House bill in the Senate.
“We feel like we’re in a pretty good position right now, having both my Senate bill over in the House and then having Rep. (Lane) Roberts’ companion bill over in the Senate and through committee,” Luetkemeyer tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. “That’s a pretty good spot to be in this part of session.”
The bill contains Max’s Law, named after St. Joseph’s K-9 Max killed in the line of duty chasing a suspect in the summer of 2021. It would increase the penalty for killing a police animal. It also contains Blair’s Law. It is named after an 11-year-old Independence girl killed by celebratory gunfire on Independence Day 2011. It would create a felony for shooting off celebratory gunfire that results in the death of someone.
Luetkemeyer worried earlier in the session that filibusters in the Senate might derail his bill. Luetkemeyer says he feels better now, because his bill has moved on to the House and a similar measure has moved from the House to the Senate.
“I still feel pretty good about the fact that we’ve got both my bill already safely over in the House and then a House version of my bill over here that’s moving through the process.”
Luetkemeyer first attempted to pass Max’s Law in the 2022 legislative session. Filibusters in the Senate prevented the bill from passing, though Luetkemeyer made a last-ditch effort that session to get the bill through. Last year, Gov. Parson vetoed the anti-crime message on an unrelated matter. Luetkemeyer has stripped the provision in the bill that prompted the veto.
This year, the early pace of the session worried the senator.
“At the beginning of session, we got out to probably the slowest start that the Senate has had in recent history,” according to Luetkemeyer. “We got about a month into session before a single piece of legislation passed out of the chamber. It was about a month-and-a-half into the session before anything significant passed out of the chamber. That is a historic slow start.”
Luetkemeyer says that began to change the week before the legislative spring break. Since, the Senate has approved and sent to the House a major anti-crime bill, an education package, and a tax bill.
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