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WEBSTER GROVES — A former police chief was among eight local St. Louis County mayors who called for tighter gun regulations Tuesday during a meeting with Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Trudy Busch Valentine.

“We have probably the most liberal gun laws in this state, in the country, and it’s scary that anybody can get a gun,� Florissant Mayor Tim Lowery, a former police chief, said Tuesday during the roundtable of mayors at a Llywelyn’s Pub in Webster Groves.

“We can certainly see the effects of that yesterday. It’s scary. We’re having a hard time protecting kids in our schools.�

The meeting, which included mayors of some of the county’s largest cities and chief economic drivers, came a day after a deadly school shooting at Central Visual and Performing Arts and Collegiate School of Medicine & Bioscience high schools, which share a south St. Louis campus, left three dead, including the shooter.

Police say 19-year-old Orlando Harris, who graduated from Central last year, shot and killed student Alexzandria Bell, 15, and teacher Jean Kuczka, 61, with an AR-15 rifle before he was killed by police.

During a wide-ranging conversation, mayors called for a multifront approach to combating crime, including resources for education and mental and behavioral health treatment. But the discussion frequently returned to how a widespread availability of guns contributed to crime.

Lowery, a Democrat who leads the county’s most-populated city at about 52,000 residents, was among mayors criticizing Republican state lawmakers — including Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, Valentine’s opponent in the Nov. 8 election — for loose gun regulations, including a recent law declaring federal gun laws will not be recognized or enforced in Missouri. Schmitt has defended the law, which is currently being challenged in court.

Lowery, whose father was also a police chief and mayor, said the law effectively bars local police and prosecutors from helping federal officials enforce gun laws.

“We got officers stopping cars on the street, where four or five of these people have guns, and there’s nothing they can do about it,� Lowery said.

“It’s all of our state legislators right now that have done this to us. We can’t even enforce our federal laws because of laws that Eric Schmitt helped put in place.�

A spokesman for Schmitt’s campaign did not return phone calls requesting comment.

Webster Groves Mayor Laura Arnold said police have documented a rise in car thefts in the city, which they attribute to burglars hoping to find guns and money inside cars.

“Part of the rise in crimes is because guns are so readily available,� she said.

Beverly Hills Mayor Brian Jackson said local leaders of urban areas should be allowed to set their own gun regulations to help combat day-to-day gun violence in the region, including a shooting in Beverly Hills Supermarket in September that left a man dead.

“Legislation has turned our state into a war zone, and there are no real borders or walls between municipalities,� he said.

The roundtable, organized by former Webster Groves Mayor Gerry Welch, also included mayors of Clayton, Brentwood, Kirkwood, Maplewood and Frontenac.

Valentine on Tuesday called for a state law that would prohibit people younger than 21 from purchasing a gun, as well as universal background checks and so-called red flag laws that would allow police to get court orders to temporarily take away guns from people deemed dangerous.

The statement stopped short of calling for a complete national ban on assault rifles. Valentine said she wanted to work to get “military-style assault weapons out of the wrong hands.�

“I definitely believe in the Second Amendment,� Valentine said in an interview after the discussion with mayors Tuesday. “There are a lot of people that are responsible gun owners. Missourians want to hunt, they want to use guns for sports.�

“It’s a federal law that handguns cannot be sold to people under 21. It should be a state law that no guns, handguns or long guns can be sold to any person under 21.�

Valentine also called for expanding mental health services, reading aloud part of a letter police said was written by Harris, the shooter, in which he described himself as “an isolated loner.�

“I think we have to address mental health because I think so many of these mass shootings are because of people that are mentally ill,� Valentine said. “And I think a lot of them are seeking care and help but they can’t find it.�