The Missouri Sheriffs’ Association is urging Governor Jay Nixon to give local school districts and law enforcement more say in controlling gun violence.
Sheriff Kent Oberkrom of Henry County presides over the association. While Oberkrom states that standardized training would be effective across the board, he believes local governments should enforce the specific mandates.
“I think it’s difficult to legislate, especially from the federal level. It’s difficult to legislate what works for every school in the nation. And I think that’s somewhat true even in state government,” Oberkom said. It’s hard to legislate a state plan as to what’s going to work in every school because every school is different.”
Oberkrom expressed concern that some states fail to report mental health statuses to their background checking system.
“That’s just one example of many things. And when I talk about this thing being very, very involved, there’s lots of issues that need to be looked at; that’s just one,” Oberkrom said. “Certainly that system needs to either be cleaned up or we need a different system in place to retrieve those mental health records.”
The National Sheriffs’ Association echoed the Missouri Association’s concerns.
Cape Girardeau Sheriff John Jordan told the Southeast Missourian newspaper he would not enforce President Barack’s gun control policies.