MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The new law allows adults with a permit to carry a concealed weapon anywhere, and gives people the right to use deadly force in public if they believe there is a reasonable threat.
"This law is a shoot first, ask questions later," state Senator Jill Schupp from the Democratic Party said, as quoted by the St.Louis Post-Dispatch late on Friday.
Missouri Governor Jay Nixon, also a Democrat, declined to tell reporters whether he planned to veto the bills, saying "I’m just going to have to look at it."
The gun law passed both legislative chambers with enough votes to override Nixon’s veto.
Republicans labeled as an "absurd extreme" the Democrats’ criticism that the law’s "stand your ground" provision would "embolden trigger-happy gun owners."
"I think all it does is make Missourians safer," state Senator Kurt Schaefer said. His lower-house colleague Representative Galen Higdon argued that "if you're going to attack somebody you've got to pay the consequences."
Calls for greater gun controls to curb the growing number of mass shootings across the United States have faced fierce opposition from advocates of the Second Amendment to the US Constitution, which guarantees the right to keep and bear arms.
