by The Missouri General Assembly overrode the earlier veto by Gov. Jay Nixon (D-MO) of Senate Bill 656 which now allows any person legally entitled to possess a firearm to carry that firearm without a permit. SB 656 also created lifetime carry permits, expanded both the castle doctrine and stand your ground protections, gave military members a longer period of time to renew their permits, and limits the cost of a permit to $100. The bill did not do away with permits but made the need for one pretty much irrelevant.
The override vote in the Senate was 24-6 and 112-41 in the House of Representatives. The official roll call vote breakdown of the Senate override has not been published as of yet.
The provisions of SB 656 with the exception of constitutional carry become effective in 30 days. Constitutional carry will not become effective until January 1, 2017. SB 656 rewrote Section 571.130 of the Missouri Revised Statutes which previously made it a crime to carry a weapon including a firearm concealed without a permit. The revision now makes it a crime to carry a concealed weapon in places where it is forbidden by Section 571.107. These places include correctional facilities, police stations, polling places on Election Day, court houses, and the like.
According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Gov. Nixon and other Democrats contend this will make the state less safe:
Nixon has said the bill would make the state less safe by taking power away from local law enforcement, who under current law issue permits to citizens who have completed a firearm safety training course and passed a background check.
Getting weapons without training raised a red flag even for gun-friendly Democrats.
“I don’t think it’s a burden to take an eight-hour course to understand the dos and the don’ts, the shoulds and the shouldn’ts, of carrying a loaded firearm,” said Sen. Jason Holsman, D-Kansas City, who waved his own concealed carry permit while speaking on the Senate floor.
St. Louis lawmakers said the lack of training would make the city more dangerous.
“We’re putting citizens in the place of law enforcement who have training and skills and experience,” said Rep. Kim Gardner, a Democrat who is set to become the next St. Louis circuit attorney.
Sponsoring Sen. Brian Munzlinger, R-Williamstown, said the bill would give law-abiding Missourians the right to conceal and carry in places that already allow permitless open carry. It will take effect in 2017.
The video below from KMOV St Louis shows some of the debate over the bill’s override in the House. St. Rep. Stacey Newman (D-St. Louis), the reigning poster girl of Mayor Bloomberg’s Demanding Mommies, says “the bill we just passed will ensure, guarantee it, more gun deaths.”