You must live in the land of liberals.( ca). No pun intended.
Sadly I believe that is the issue we have here in CA.
Mountain Lions became a "specially protected species" in 1990. CA F&G notes right after noting "specially protected species" that "This has nothing to do with their relative abundance and does not imply that they are rare." The guesstimate on the CA F&G site is 6,000 state wide and that they estimate the population is high. If CA ever delists lions and opens them up to hunting again, there are some big Mountain Lions out this way. However, currently with our state, we also have a abundant count of anti hunting, anti gun groups so I'd be surprised if delisting Mountain Lion will happen anytime soon. I'm not blaming our CA F&G but our slow acting crazy politics out here.
BobT's state seems to have a similar policy in Missouri,
Under Missouri's Wildlife Code, mountain lions are a protected species that may be killed only if they attack or kill livestock or domestic animals or threaten human safety.