Some very good news for gun owners out of Jefferson City, Missouri, where the state House on Thursday voted overwhelmingly in favor of a bill that will repeal several of the state’s “sensitive places” off-limits to concealed carry holders, including public transportation. The legislation still requires a second and final vote in the House before crossing over to the Senate, which could come as early as next week, but today’s vote is a great sign for the bill’s future.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Adam Schnelting, a St. Charles Republican, would allow people with concealed carry permits to carry guns on public transit in the state.

“We all have the potential of running into situations where we have to utilize self defense to protect ourselves and those we love,” Schnelting said on the floor Thursday. “This legislation will discourage criminal activity on our public transportation systems, but most importantly, it will ensure that we maintain our constitutional right to self defense.”

Jennifer Harris Dault, a St. Louis Mennonite pastor, told The Star Thursday she was disappointed that Republicans were trying to allow guns in churches while ignoring calls to enact gun regulations. Mennonites are historically peaceful and her congregation would not believe in bringing guns for personal protection.

“The idea that someone could legally bring a gun into our worship space, I don’t even want to think about it,” she said. “That’s so foreign to who we are. It would be basically an attack on our religious liberty.”

Kimberly Cella, the executive director of the Missouri Public Transit Association, told The Star that allowing guns on public transit would seriously jeopardize federal funding.

Cella said transit providers like OATS Transit and SMTS, Inc., which are both non-profit transit providers for most rural areas of the state, would likely face issues with gathering funding.

Those providers, Cella said, have private contracts and receive federal funding, and there are requirements in those contracts that prohibit guns on transit. The bill would jeopardize those contracts and the matched federal funding, Cella said.

Both St. Louis and Kansas City’s transit systems are bi-state operations governed by a federal compact that prohibits guns on public transit, and Cella said it is her understanding that that compact would supersede the bill and not apply to transit in those cities.

Violent criminals are still carrying with little fear of the consequences, while peaceable gun owners who would like to carry for self-protection but don’t want to run afoul of the law are the ones disarmed. The Missouri bill that received preliminary approval today would be a major improvement to the status quo and at least provide concealed carry holders with the ability to protect themselves in a supposedly “sensitive place” that is already far from being “gun-free”.