Many farmers own guns. Yet the right to bear arms fared better than the right to farm in Missouri's recent elections.
Voters approved a constitutional amendment enhancing gun rights by 61 percent of the vote. A constitutional amendment creating a right to farm got just 50.1 percent support.
There was a general city-country divide. The gun and farm measures fared better in rural areas than in bigger cities.
Yet the reason for the closer margin on the farming amendment wasn't solely because of weaker support for it in suburban St. Louis and Kansas City.
An AP analysis of election results shows that some of the largest percentage drop-offs in "yes" votes between the gun and farming amendments occurred in southern Missouri, particularly the clump of counties surrounding the Springfield-to-Branson corridor.
