Missouri Governor vetoes a gun safety bill, calling it a 'pet project'

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson has vetoed a bill that would have funded a school safety initiative for gun-detection equipment.

The bill Parson rejected Friday called for a $2.5 million grant proposal and was one of many line-item vetoes he announced when signing a roughly $50 billion state budget bill, according to The Associated Press.

The bill was similar to one that Kansas Governor Laura Kelly vetoed in May. Hers was for a $5 million grant. Both involved proposals from ZeroEyes, a company founded by military veterans after the deadly mass shooting that took place at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida in 2018, in which 17 people were killed and 17 more injured.

Both bills offered gun surveillance systems that appeared to be specific to ZeroEyes product, which was the basis that both governors stated as their reason to reject the bill.

Kelly said it would provide ZeroEyes the exclusive opportunity as the vendor, while Parson, a Republican, has told the legislators who had passed the bill in Missouri that the bill “appears to describe a specific vendor’s platform.”

He explained his veto in a letter to the legislators saying that the state should follow established purchasing laws rather than contracting “with a particular vendor,” The AP reported.