JEFFERSON CITY � The Missouri Senate on Monday night bowed to pressure from the National Rifle Association and stripped a provision requiring gun owners to report stolen weapons from a bill that would nullify federal gun laws within the state.

The provision � the only one in the bill imposing any new responsibilities on gun owners � was taken out in a parliamentary maneuver that required the Senate to take three votes to reconsider a decision made last week. The action angered the amendment's sponsor, Sen. Jamilah Nasheed, D-St. Louis, and she spent more than four hours on the floor denouncing the NRA and her colleagues.

"We are blind followers in here right now," Nasheed said. "Because one special interest group opposes the amendment, everyone decides to run."

The bill, sponsored by Sen. Brian Nieves, R-Washington, was given first-round approval last week. Nasheed's amendment, which would have required gun owners to report stolen weapons within 72 hours of discovering the theft, quickly drew criticism from the NRA.

"It seeks to create a de-facto gun owner registry, as well as place unknown civil liabilities on the gun owner," the pro-gun group said in a statement issued after last week's vote. "Law-abiding gun owners should not be made a victim twice."

Nieves, who appeared with Nasheed at a news conference last week to defend her amendment, joined her in criticizing the NRA. "The NRA seems to be in a position that they don't have to tell the truth about things. They think that all they have to do is flex their muscles," he said.

The bill is a rewritten version of a measure vetoed last year by Gov. Jay Nixon. It declares that "all federal acts, laws, executive orders, administrative orders, court orders, rules and regulations, whether past, present or future, which infringe on the people's right to keep and bear arms" are "null and void."

Under the bill's provisions, anyone attempting to enforce any of those laws or regulations could be sued. Federal law enforcement agents would be guilty of a misdemeanor if they enforced those federal laws within the state's boundaries. Another portion of the bill would allow people with permits to carry concealed weapons to openly wear guns anywhere in the state.

As she fought the effort to strip her amendment, Nasheed said the Senate was wasting its time with the bill when it should be addressing major state issues such as Medicaid, education in substandard districts and gun violence in her urban district.

Addressing Nieves, Nasheed said he had been played by the NRA.

"You allowed the NRA to punk you, yes you did," she said. "That's a lot of power. I didn't realize that they had that much power until I stood here today."

"Neither did I," Nieves replied. "And they still haven't told the truth."

Senators who spoke against Nasheed's amendment said it would do nothing to reduce gun violence. "I think the criminals that want to shoot people in your neighborhood or assault people in other neighborhoods aren't going to care one lick whether it was reported stolen," said Sen. John Lamping, R-Ladue.

All Republicans, including Sen. Kurt Schaefer, R-Columbia, sided with the NRA while Democrats voted with Nasheed.

Schaefer had earlier won first-round approval for a proposed constitutional amendment adding the right to possess ammunition to the state right to bear arms and raising the legal standard for reviewing laws restricting guns.

As the Senate prepared for the vote Nasheed knew she would lose, she said the public got a good look at how Republicans follow the dictates of special interests.

"What just happened here tonight said a lot about who controls this body," she said. "It came out into the light. We had the opportunity to see it at work."

This article was published in the Tuesday, February 18, 2014 edition of the Columbia Daily Tribune with the headline "Senate strips amendment from gun bill;�Move came after NRA opposition."