Mayors of Kansas City and Saint Louis are bound and determined to believe that the only thing that will make their communities safer is gun control. No amount of evidence to the contrary will dissuade them in the least. They know what they want to believe and you’re not going to confuse them with the facts.

As free adults, they’re welcome to believe anything they want to believe.

However, Missouri Republican leadership has vowed to defend the Second Amendment rights of Missouri residents regardless of what these mayors may opt to believe.

As legislators prepare to head back to Jefferson City this week, Republican lawmakers are making a point to reaffirm their aversion to taking up strong gun control legislation during the upcoming session.

Gov. Mike Parson held multiple meetings with a handful of metro area mayors this year as Kansas City and St. Louis, in particular, have grappled with an abundance of gun violence. Following a November meeting, news reports suggested the Republican governor agreed to back the mayors’ call for stronger gun control — among other things.

But in a one-pager published Saturday, Parson said he has not “supported restricting law abiding citizens’ right to bear arms.” Instead, Parson said the three big takeaways from his meetings with the metro area mayors centered on witness protection, mental health and substance abuse treatment, and “keeping guns out of the hands of violent criminals.”

“I have never wavered in my support of the Second Amendment,” Parson said. “I firmly believe in protecting Missourians’ Second Amendment rights and will continue working with federal, state, local, and community partners to protect the citizens of our state. Over the past months, we have rolled up our sleeves, gotten to work, and identified the immediate actions we can take at the state level to keep Missouri citizens safe, while still protecting their Second Amendment rights.”

For folks in Missouri, that’s good news. (Well, sort of, but I’ll get to that in a second.)

It’s not good news for the mayors in question, but Missouri has shored up its pro-gun reputation quite a bit in recent years and it’s nice to hear that the governor is committed to, if not continuing that work, then at least no undermining it.

However, I think Parson would have been better served if he’d been explicit upfront in his lack of desire to discuss gun control.

The problem, though, is when you talk to a Democrat about “keeping guns out of the hands of violent criminals,” what they often hear is “we need to make the process of owning a gun more of a pain in the rectum for law-abiding citizens.” That’s gun control, folks, and that represents a very real problem for many of us.

Now, how does that balance with Parson’s claim of never wavering in his support of the Second Amendment? That’s up for discussion. After all, even Shannon Watts claims to support the Second Amendment.

That said, I’ll give Parson the benefit of the doubt. After all, Missouri is a pro-gun state and there’s no reason to doubt him. However, if he really wants to prove he stands by the Second Amendment, then maybe it’s time to smack down Saint Louis on their most recent anti-gun shenanigans.