The St. Louis Zoo has become the center of a legal battle over gun rights in Missouri.
The zoo has a ban on firearms, despite a change in the Missouri constitution last year that extended gun rights. The zoo argues that their ban is still lawful, but Ohio gun rights activist, Jeffry Smith, disagrees.
Smith headed to the zoo June 13 and had planned to bring in his weapon in protest, according to local news channel KSDK.
Smith claims that Missouri’s new amendment gave him an “unalienable” right to bear arms in the state, including on public grounds like a zoo. The law does have exemptions for areas such as amusement parks. The zoo believes it has such an exemption.
“The zoo is using a creative interpretation of the law to advance their bias against guns. The next thing you know, they’re going to claim to be a riverboat casino,” Smith said in a phone interview with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Monday.
Riverboats and education centers, like amusement parks, specifically have firearm exemptions.
“Tens of thousands of families and children visit the zoo on a daily basis for education, recreation and amusement,” the zoo stated in a court filing.”Permitting firearms … to be carried through the zoo will cause a chilling effect on the experience of visiting the zoo.”
The zoo filed a restraining order against Smith until the court can take up the dispute, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.
Smith stood outside the zoo with an empty gun holster in protest. The group ‘Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America’ also showed up, but in support of the zoo’s firearm ban.
The issue is expected to be taken up in court next week.
