UPDATED AT 9:55 p.m.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Missouri Senate Republicans repealed a provision to a gun bill that would require reporting of lost or stolen guns after the National Rifle Association voiced strong opposition to the bill last week.
Sen. Rob Schaaf, R-St. Joseph, led the Senate effort to reconsider Sen. Brian Nieves’ Senate Bill 613 – just five days after lawmakers initially approved it. The NRA voiced opposition to the bill because of the reporting provision. The organization privately threatened to use the vote as a rated vote that could harm Republicans and their coveted ratings.
“There is an emotional element to the ownership of a gun,” Schaaf said. “By reporting it stolen, I’m implicitly admitting that I own it to begin with. I don’t think law enforcement needs to know.”
In a statement on its website, the NRA said they opposed an amendment – proposed by Sen. Jamilah Nasheed, D-St. Louis, and originally supported by Senate Republicans – which would have required gun owners to report a theft of their weapon within 72 hours.
“Your NRA-ILA has opposed this anti-gun legislation nationally for years. It seeks to create a de-facto gun owner registry as well as place unknown civil liabilities on the gun owner,” the organization wrote in a post on its website. “Law-abiding gun owners should not be made a victim twice.”
By a vote of 22-9, the body repealed Nasheed’s amendment and moved to perfect the bill without it.
The reconsider move was an episode showing the power the National Rifle Association – one of the largest special interest groups in the country – still has in the Missouri General Assembly. On the day after the Senate approved the bill with Nasheed’s amendment, Republicans huddled in caucus for more than an hour considering how to move forward. The Senators caucused again on Monday ahead of the days’s floor action – marking only the second time Senate Republicans have caucused this session.
Nasheed, in an inquiry with Nieves, said Senate Republicans were not being “free thinkers” and said the GOP was “buckling” under political pressure.
“You flipped the script real quick,” she said. “My amendment, truly is, the best part of this bill.”
Republicans have vowed to make the bill a chief priority this year after similar legislation was vetoed by Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat, last year. The NRA quietly opposed that bill because of opposition from law enforcement and free speech advocates.
Nieves said he was chief among those angry with the NRA’s vocal opposition. He accused them of lying about the amendment and said his opinion of the organization has “been damaged tremendously in this process.”
“If the NRA had been honest brokers and brought up the real concerns we would be in a much better place,” he said. “Unfortunately, the NRA seems to be of the opinion they don’t have to tell they truth – all they have to do is flex their muscles.”
The entire bill, which received first-round approval Tuesday night, would aim to nullify federal gun rules and make it a crime for federal law enforcement officials to enforce those laws. Similar legislation was vetoed last session by Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon, and a veto override attempt was blocked by Senate leaders Tom Dempsey, R-St. Charles, and Ron Richard, R-Joplin, after Missouri law enforcement officials raised concerns about safety and the Missouri Press Association raised concerns about an apparent freedom of the press issue. Those provisions have been removed from this year’s bill.