At 23 years of age, the Show Me state has had the highest age requirement for concealed carry in the nation. Legally an adult? Yep. Exercise the franchise? Check. Join the Army? Yes sir. Carry a heater? Uh, no…we really think you should really wait another five years. Until now, that is. Governor Jay Nixon, a Democrat, signed a new gun rights bill into law Friday that lowers the CCW age to 21. Other significant improvements enacted by the new law include prohibiting punitive sales taxes on firearms, enabling easier long gun purchases from contiguous states and allowing Missourians to own machine guns and suppressors (as long as you comply with federal law). Not big changes in the great scheme of things. But it’s more steady progress in the almost nation-wide advance of gun rights. And who wouldn’t be happy about that?