In Missouri, this is the first place to start:
http://www.kljamisonlaw.com/
Mr. Jamison literally wrote the book on gun laws in Missouri and is probably the best at the game. He on the west side of the state though, and isn't a huge fan of open carry. He would be worth talking to at a minimum. You're likely to get a short preaching to though.
Yes, but this is not an open carry issue. This is a carry issue. It is also now a preemption issue and, well ...
The zoo is essentially claiming exemption from pre-emption, that their rules are equivalent to municipal ordinances, that they are not a a gov't entity, that they are an enumerated gov't entity even though not enumerated, that 21.750 means that you can only OC where you can CC, that because they received an award from an organization with the word "Amusement" in the title and because people can have fun at the zoo it is an amusement park, that their strictly public entity as they are required to be and remain in their creation statute is a commercial enterprise, that 90 acres of public lands are entirely a day care because there is a daycare center somewhere on the 90 acres and kids sometimes wander around all over, that the entire zoo is an education institution because kids go on field trips there regularly, and some other stuff not popping to mind (very busy day and I read all this early on when it first hit the STL site so CRS is kicking in).
Under their reasoning now my local Park Dept Nature Center, because they use the surrounding municipal park to educate kids about nature stuff and they host school field trips there, is now a gun free zone in the entirety of the park lands surrounding the nature as it is a school zone, and because the local elementary school regularly walks to a different park near the school for recreation that park is now also school zone or if the local daycare doesn't like the people next door they just take the kids for a daily walk around the parking lot the whole dang area is suddenly part of the flippin' day care.
And all of that is ignoring the preemption challenge, avoidance of strict scrutiny, the fact that they are a distinct political subdistrict unable to pass ordinances, etc.
IANAL, however, IMPO, they over reached dramatically. Just like with the signs - people have quietly carried CC in the zoo for nearly a decade. Just like with the empty holster - the over reacting security guards got everyone's attention on the zoo. Just like with BB62 sending a letter and saying "Hey, I don't think you can ban carry in the zoo" - could have said, please don't or if you do just CC because we have animals and stuff and don't want guns but don't want a big deal but instead spewed a bunch of nonsense to the media for days until it erupted into a FB page noticed event. Then instead of just contacting BB62 and following up with a yeah, we probably can't stop you at this point but it would be really great if you didn't have an armed march in the zoo and freak out the West County soccer moms (To which BB62 could have clarified, yet again, that he had no intention to organize an armed walk/march into the zoo as he had said repeatedly the HE and PEYTON were intending to go into the zoo together and in his letters only said the HE intended to carry, despite the argument in the TRO filing about some group carry walk) and in return we'll just quietly go back to the way it was for the last decade but instead filed a challenge to the entirety of 21.750 and most of 571 while utterly ignoring their governing statutes in 184 threatening every single dang thing we think we even know about 2A rights in MO (except for Amendment 5 which they utterly ignored). At every turn the zoo has taken something that was not or should have not been any big friggin deal and turned it into a cataclysm. That is the singular thing that most offends me about all this. If they had just **** in the first place instead of challenging the law themselves by posting signage they do not have authority to post, there never would have been an anything about anything. But no, a bunch of wealthy west county Bloomberg types want to dictate to the entirety of the state how our 2A rights should be exercised in some twisted reading of the statutes completely ignoring the plain language while ignoring their VERY limited authority under 184. /rant
If their challenge wins the same ruling will apply to the KC Zoo, and any museum, science center, planetarium, botanical gardens, park or recreation area, etc created or existing under any Metropolitan Zoological Park and Museum District. They think they dropped a nuke. I'm thinking they dropped a very messy, smelly stink bomb but the immediate situation is that the stink and mess hit just about everything to do with 2A in MO.
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