Missouri Legislature overrides Gov. Nixon's Veto of Permitless Carry bill SB656

The Moms Demand Action movement has been active in pushing for gun law reform across the country. However, it was inaction that the activist group's Missouri members demanded Wednesday as they gathered to rally in Jefferson City.

About 100 Missouri residents gathered in the Capitol's rotunda to demand that the Missouri General Assembly sustain Gov. Jay Nixon's veto on Senate Bill 656. The bill would allow people to conceal and carry a gun without a permit. It would also allow Missouri residents to use deadly force against perceived threats on public property, an extension of the existing castle doctrine.

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Leading the charge in support of Nixon's veto is Becky Morgan, the chapter leader for Moms Demand Action in Missouri. Morgan's father was shot and killed in 1991 by a family member she says was prohibited from buying a gun in Missouri, but who was able to drive across the state border into Kentucky and purchase one. Morgan said that as a survivor of gun violence, one of her priorities in working with Moms Demand Action has been to ensure that residents with ill intent cannot get their hands on firearms.

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mountainpass said:

Good for her but this bill has nothing to with that.

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The guns legislation prompted some of the most intense debate Wednesday.

Democrats asserted it could put racial minorities at a greater risk of being fatally shot.

"The targets in our area are black boys, not pheasants," said Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal, who represents Ferguson, where sometimes violent protests broke out after the fatal police shooting of black 18-year-old Michael Brown in 2014. The white officer was cleared of wrongdoing by state and federal investigations.

"What I don't want to get to is the point where there is a trigger-happy police officer or bad Samaritan like Zimmerman who says, 'Black boy in the hood. Skittles. Let's shoot,'" Chappelle-Nadal said, a reference to Trayvon Martin, a black 17-year-old who was walking back from a Florida convenience store after buying ice tea and Skittles when he was fatally shot by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman in 2012.

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Debate of the bill in the Senate lasted for about two hours and for another hour in the House. The Senate voted 24-6 to override the veto; the House voted 112-41 in favor of overriding the bill.

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Lawmakers who supported the bill argued that its provisions are within every person's Second Amendment rights. They also argued criminals will carry guns with or without the law.

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"This bill will introduce the idea that you can justifiably take someone's life out of fear," said Sen. Jason Holsman, D-Kansas City, who defines himself as a supporter of the Second Amendment.

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"I don't think it's a burden to take an eight-hour course to understand the do's and don'ts, the shoulds and shouldn'ts, of carrying a loaded firearm," Holsman said.

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Kevin Ahlbrand, president of the Missouri Fraternal Order of Police, agreed.

"We're going to have to assume everyone we approach is armed," Ahlbrand told the Missourian prior to the veto session.

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"It's shameful for Missouri lawmakers to turn their backs on the people who have to go out on the street and enforce laws," Moms Demand Action Missouri chapter leader Becky Morgan said after the votes. "They've now made being a police officer more dangerous."

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"The institution of this law really provides no protection or security for law enforcement," Curls said. "And the same issue that they have had with Michael Brown and other murders by police - whether justified or unjustified - around the country, it leads to more of them. They are gonna be fearful that anyone could be carrying a concealed weapon."

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coffeemate said:

yeah, hb 60 is causing all the police shootings and riots across the nation.

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"The institution of this law really provides no protection or security for law enforcement," Curls said. "And the same issue that they have had with Michael Brown and other murders by police - whether justified or unjustified - around the country, it leads to more of them. They are gonna be fearful that anyone could be carrying a concealed weapon."

:roll:

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"What I don't want to get to is the point where there is a trigger-happy police officer or bad Samaritan like Zimmerman who says, 'Black boy in the hood. Skittles. Let's shoot,'" Chappelle-Nadal said

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Malum Prohibitum said:

And we can't even get rid of the Jim Crow permit requirement for carrying openly here in Georgia. :|

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Governor Deal said:

"When you get to the real philosophy behind all of it, the question is whether government in any form or fashion has the right to make those judgment calls, or does the Constitution speak for itself," Deal said in an interview last week. "That is where the debate is."

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mountainpass said:

Deal has been quoted as why do we even need a license.

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Malum Prohibitum said:

Deal was also quoted as supporting campus carry.

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