JEFFERSON CITY - Ending a 12-hour filibuster by Democrats, the Missouri Senate on Friday approved a bill that would allow qualifying Missourians to carry concealed handguns.

The debate, which started Thursday evening and resumed Friday morning, did not end until Sen. Harold Caskey, the Butler Democrat handling the bill and a key concealed-carry supporter, used a rare parliamentary move to shut off arguments.

That forced a vote on the bill, which senators approved 23-7. The Senate's action sends the bill back to the House, which already approved its own measure, 108-33. The House can either approve the Senate's changes or request a conference committee.

Democratic Gov. Bob Holden has said he would veto the bill, pointing to a 1999 referendum on concealed carry that voters rejected.

Caskey was not discouraged.

"If the governor vetoes it, we have one more shot at it," Caskey said.

That would be during the General Assembly's veto session in September, when supporters would need 23 votes in the Senate and 109 in the House to override Holden's veto.

An override would mark the first time since 1875 that Missourians could carry concealed weapons. It would add Missouri to a list of 35 other states have some form of concealed-carry laws; Kansas is one of a handful that do now allow concealed carry.

Gun-rights supporters have tried for more than a decade to get a concealed-carry law in Missouri. During his time as governor, Mel Carnahan threatened to veto any measure that did not allow Missourians to vote on the issue.

Opponents of the bill before this year's legislature hammered on that point. By not sending the issue before voters, the measure was subverting the will of the people, they argued.

"There seems to be a lot of discussion about how people's minds have changed, but I don't see that," said Senate Minority Leader Ken Jacob, a Columbia Democrat. "If a referendum clause were added (to the bill), it would end the opposition."

Caskey rejected the argument that most Missourians opposed the 1999 referendum, Proposition B.

"Every one of my counties carried it," Caskey said. "You talk about a `majority,' and the voter turnout was less than 30 percent for that election. The majority chose not to vote."

Among criticisms of the bill's provisions, Jacob pointed to language that would forbid citizens from carrying concealed weapons into public meetings but would allow politicians to pack hidden guns if they were licensed. The effect, Jacob said, would be that handguns could be carried into the Senate chamber.

"This is a place where people get angry with each other," he said.

Caskey, though, noted that the bill still allowed the legislature, like any other public body, to ban its members from carrying weapons to meetings.

"We've prohibited smoking in here. We can prohibit the carrying of concealed weapons," he said.

Sen. Matt Bartle, a Lee's Summit Republican, was the only Kansas City area senator to vote in favor of the bill. Sen. Ed Quick, a Liberty Democrat, voted against it, and Sens. Charlie Wheeler and Ronnie DePasco, both Kansas City Democrats, were absent.

Sen. Mary Bland, a Kansas City Democrat, was so angry about debate being halted that she violated Senate rules by remaining in the chamber but refusing to vote on the bill.

On the Web

The concealed-carry bill is H.B. 349. Bills are available on the Internet at www.house.state.mo.us.