[JURIST] The Missouri Senate [official website] on Wednesday fell one vote short of overriding a veto by Governor Jay Nixon [official profile] and passing into law a bill implementing a controversial gun measure. After the state’s House of Representatives on Wednesday voted 109-49 in favor of overriding Nixon’s veto, the senate’s 22-12 vote failed to meet the required two-thirds majority. Nixon vetoed the bill earlier this year, arguing that it violated the Supremacy Clause of the US Constitution [text], as well as an individual’s free exercise of speech protected by both federal and state constitutions. HB 436 [text, PDF] essentially nullified federal gun legislation, providing:

Although the several states have granted supremacy to laws and treaties made pursuant to the powers granted in the Constitution, such supremacy does not apply to various federal statutes, orders, rules, regulations, or other actions which restrict or prohibit the manufacture, ownership, and use of firearms, firearm accessories, or ammunition exclusively within the borders of Missouri.

The bill also made it illegal to “publish the name, address, or other identifying information of any individual who owns a firearm or who is an applicant for or holder of any license, certificate, permit, or endorsement which allows such individual to own, acquire, possess, or carry a firearm.”

This is the latest development in the national gun control debate. Earlier this month the Mississippi Supreme Court [official website] unanimously upheld Mississippi’s House Bill 2 [text], which stipulates that gun owners do not need a special permit to carry a gun in a holster or carrying case, so long as it is at least partially visible. In August Illinois Governor Pat Quinn [official website] signed a gun safety bill into law [JURIST report] requiring background checks for all gun purchases in the state as well as the reporting of all lost and stolen guns. In May several groups filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a new Connecticut gun control law expanding the definition of “assault weapons,” which are banned under existing state law. Earlier that month US Attorney General Eric Holder [official website] warned [JURIST report] Kansas that a recently enacted law intended to block enforcement of federal gun regulations was unconstitutional. In March a Kansas legislative committee approved a bill that would allow the open carry [JURIST report] and transport of firearms around the state.