That includes Senate Bill 656, which would allow residents to carry a concealed weapon without a permit.
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This week, the General Assembly overrode those vetoes.
Both votes by the Republican-controlled state House and Senate reached the two-thirds majority required to enact legislation over the governor’s veto. Nixon was already the most overridden governor in Missouri history due to the extreme political division in the Capitol. It will go into effect January 1, 2017.
The vote garnered national attention and sparked the interest of lobby groups such as the National Rifle Association, which supported the measure, and New York-based Moms Demand Action, which opposed removing the permit requirement.
According to the NRA, 30 states now have “stand your ground” precedents or laws, but Missouri is the first to pass a new law of this type since 2011, Fox News reported. The NRA says 30 states have laws or court precedents stating people have no duty to retreat from a threat anywhere they are lawfully present. The bill also requires the state to pay for photo IDs for those lacking them, as well as for any underlying documents such as birth certificates and marriage licenses needed to get a state identification card. That is necessary because the Missouri Supreme Court ruled 10 years ago that such a statute violated the existing state constitution.
After voting on the photo ID bill, senators immediately took up the guns legislation. “SB 656 (is) a risky gun bill that dismantles Missouri’s concealed carry permit requirement and lets people – including some violent criminals, certain repeat drug offenders, and people with no firearms safety training – carry hidden, loaded handguns in public”, the statement said. His arguments won the day in the 2015, but in 2016 West Virginia lawmakers overruled the veto of their governor to make the Second Amendment a sufficient carry permit for that state too. Criminals, they said, carry guns regardless of whether they have permits or not, the Columbus Missourian reported.
The legislature’s override also makes Missouri the 30th state to adopt some version of the stand-your-ground statute that absolves citizens of the duty to retreat from unsafe situations. But Missouri’s measure would make it the first new “stand-your-ground” state since 2011.
Some legislators anxious that looser gun laws would put racial minorities at greater risk.
Republicans, however, said the bill protects the rights of law-abiding citizens.
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In addition to reasserting the right of citizens to carry arms for self-defense without a permit, SB 656 also provided more legal protections for citizens forced to use firearms to defend themselves and loved ones both inside the home and outside the home. “The effects of the bills overridden won’t be felt for months if not years down the road”, says Senate President Pro Tem Ron Richard (R-Joplin).
