JEFFERSON CITY - A House panel voted 9-1 Wednesday in favor of a bill that would allow permit-holders to carry concealed weapons in Missouri with as little as four hours of handgun training.

A second bill that would legalize the carrying of concealed weapons in a vehicle's passenger compartment was approved 10-0.

The proposals now move to the House floor, where they are expected to face significant opposition.

The lopsided votes were expected from the special Committee on Sportsmanship, Safety and Firearms, which is dominated by gun-rights advocates. The committee in the last two weeks had heard several hours of testimony, mostly from supporters who argued that carrying a concealed gun amounted to a "God-given right" to defend themselves and their families.

Gun-control advocates who testified last week were met with criticism from committee members. They dismissed arguments that concealed weapons give children greater access to lethal force and feed an atmosphere of violence.

The proposal that emerged from the committee Wednesday merged three separate bills. In at least two areas, the new version watered down the safeguards designed to ensure safe handling of concealed weapons.

Most of the concealed-weapons bills introduced this year had required applicants to undergo eight hours of training in gun handling and the law. The proposal approved Wednesday requires only half as much training.

Most proposals prohibited people who had ever been committed to mental institutions from receiving permits to carry concealed guns. But the new version would allow such people to carry guns as long as they had not been committed in the last five years.

Committee Chairman Frank Barnitz, a Lake Spring Democrat, said the four-hour training requirement was a minimum. The classroom training and shooting requirements almost certainly would take longer than four hours to complete.

The four hours are only one-third the training that was required in Proposition B, the 1999 referendum on concealed weapons. Voters rejected that plan 52 percent to 48 percent. One of the primary criticisms was that it would put additional guns on the street in the hands of people with minimal training.

Barnitz dismissed such criticism.

"I don't know if the public will buy (the four-hour training requirement), but I think it's an adequate amount of training," he said.

House Majority Leader Wayne Crump, a Potosi Democrat who has led the fight to legalize concealed weapons, said he would feel more comfortable with an eight-hour requirement.

Barnitz said the loosened restriction on people who had been committed was designed to address the case of a man who had committed himself after losing his job, his wife and his house on the same day. Such a person should not be banned for life from getting a concealed weapon, he said.

"If someone had been committed in the last five years, they are probably unstable," Barnitz said. "But I believe (more than five years) is enough of a restriction to take care of the need."

In Wednesday's meeting, lawmakers mostly questioned whether the bills imposed too many restrictions on applicants for permits to carry concealed weapons.

Rep. Don Lograsso, a Blue Springs Republican, asked whether the state was going too far by denying a permit to anyone who had been "discharged under dishonorable conditions" from the U.S. military. Some of the restrictions, he said, seemed "ridiculous and counterproductive."

Under the proposal, sheriffs could deny a concealed-weapons permit if the applicant had been convicted of a felony or convicted of a violent misdemeanor in the last five years. The applicant could not have more than one drunken driving conviction in the last five years.

Permits also could be denied if applicants were habitually drunk or drugged out.

The second bill would allow any member of the public to carry a concealed gun within a vehicle. Earlier versions allowed the gun to be hidden in the glove compartment or under the seat. But the version that emerged Wednesday also would allow people to conceal a gun under their clothes while in their car or truck.