JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Gov. Jay Nixon vetoed a constitutional carry gun rights bill on Monday, prompting GOP lawmakers to vow to attempt an override in September.
Senate Bill 656, sponsored by state Sen. Brian Munzlinger, R-Williamstown, would have removed requirements that gun owners would have to undergo training and background checks to carry a concealed firearm in Missouri.
In his veto letter, Nixon also wrote that the bill removing such safeguards would mean that any person allowed to legally own a gun would be allowed to carry it concealed.
Nixon, who discussed his veto Monday at the Missouri Police Chiefs Association annual conference, said the Second Amendment is a strongly held value in Missouri, but that this bill went too far.
“I cannot support the extreme step of throwing out that process entirely, eliminating sensible protections like background checks and training requirements and taking away the ability of sheriffs to protect their communities,” Nixon said.
GOP lawmakers were quick to denounce the veto Monday and pledged to attempt an override during the veto session in September. The Republican-led legislature passed the bill with enough support during the most recent session to override.
“This is why the people of Missouri elected a super-majority of conservative supporters of the Second Amendment to the House and the Senate,” said House Speaker Todd Richardson, R-Poplar Bluff. “Senate Bill 656 is the first meaningful step forward on gun rights in over a decade; it passed both chambers with more than enough votes to override the governor’s veto. We have to await action by the Senate on a senate bill but, if given the opportunity, I anticipate the House having the votes to override.”
Munzlinger, the bill’s sponsor in the Senate, said he had hoped the governor would allow the bill to become law, but added that he really wasn’t surprised by Nixon’s veto.
“I don’t know if this was a ploy to satisfy political people or what,” Munzlinger said. “But here we are.”
What the governor failed to mention, Munzlinger said, was that the bill does not allow people who currently aren’t allowed to carry guns to do so regardless of whether they are concealed.
“It doesn’t put guns in the hands of any additional people,” Munzlinger said. “It will be a priority in September. One of our priorities is to allow law-abiding citizens to protect themselves and that’s what this bill does.”
Many other Republicans in Missouri House and Senate voiced their displeasure with the governor’s veto, including Senate President Pro Tem Ron Richard, R-Joplin and Senate Majority Leader Mike Kehoe, R-Jefferson City.
State Sen. Will Kraus, R-Lee’s Summit, called Senate Bill 656 important in allowing citizens to legally protect themselves and their families.
“I am disappointed Gov. Nixon vetoed this bill aimed at preserving our Second Amendment rights,” Kraus said. “But I am hopeful the legislature will be able to override this decision in September.”
The measure would also have expanded the state’s so-called “castle doctrine” to allow house guests such as a babysitter to use lethal force. Homeowners would not have to try to retreat to safety before shooting intruders and the bill would have created a lifetime conceal-carry permit, dubbed “stand your ground.”
Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Springfield, handled the bill when it was in the Missouri House.
“The governor has a luxury most citizens can’t afford — an armed security detail,” Burlison said. “Most citizens don’t have that. People need to have the right to carry to defend themselves. They can’t carry a police officer in their pocket.”
Burlison also said that Nixon was not correct in that it would eliminate the check sheriffs would have on who can carry concealed. The permit would remain in place for sheriffs to issue to citizens allowing them extended privileges of where a citizen can carry, including churches and across state lines, Burlison said.
In addition, Burlison said, state law would continue to prohibit anyone who is a convicted felon, habitual drug user, or anyone who has been adjudged mentally incompetent from possessing a firearm. Further, federal law also prohibits felons, those convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence, and illegal drug users from possessing a firearm.
“Nothing in SB-656 changes these state and federal prohibitions,” Burlison said.
Law enforcement and the NRA came down on opposite sides of the issue. The governor’s veto was supported by the Missouri Police Chiefs Association and the Missouri Fraternal Order of Police. In a letter to the governor, the Missouri Fraternal Order of Police president Kevin Ahlbrand said that his organization staunchly supports the Second Amendment.
“We feel, however, that the enactment of SB-656, specifically the allowance of giving anyone not currently prohibited from possessing a firearms, the ability to carry a concealed firearm without a permit, will cost not only citizen lives but will also be extremely dangerous to law enforcement officers,” Ahlbrand said.
But the NRA condemned the veto, saying that the rights of every Missourian took a hit with Nixon’s veto pen. The bill would have allowed anyone legally to possess a firearm carry a firearm for self-defense without a permit.
“If events in Orlando and San Bernadino have taught us anything it’s that the need for self-protection can occur anywhere at any time,” said Lacey Biles, director of the NRA State and Local Affairs. “With this veto, Governor Nixon proves he is more concerned about scoring political points with out-of-state gun control groups than securing the safety of law-abiding Missourians.”
Lawmakers return to the State Capitol on Sept. 14 for the annual veto session.
