JEFFERSON CITY � Boone County lawmakers followed party lines Wednesday as majority Republican lawmakers overrode Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon�s vetoes of controversial gun and voter identification bills.

A motion to shut off debate, rare anytime in the state Senate, had been used once in September veto sessions since they were initiated in 1974. That was in 2014, when lawmakers approved a 72-hour waiting period to obtain an abortion. On Wednesday, it was used on both the gun measure and the voter identification bill.

The Missouri House also passed both bills. The gun measure eliminates the requirement for gun owners to obtain a permit to carry a concealed weapon and enacts provisions known as a �stand your ground� law. The voter identification bill would require voters to use a government-issued ID with a photo, birth date and expiration date to cast a ballot if voters approve Amendment 6 on Nov. 8.

Lawmakers passed 13 bills over Nixon�s vetoes, raising the number of successful override votes in his eight years in office to 96, far surpassing the number for any other governor.

The gun bill passed the House 112-41, mainly along party lines. Among Boone County lawmakers, Reps. Chuck Basye, R-Rocheport, Caleb Jones, R-Columbia, and Caleb Rowden, R-Columbia, voted for the bill and Reps. Stephen Webber, D-Columbia, and Kip Kendrick, D-Columbia, opposed it. In the Senate, Sen. Kurt Schaefer, R-Columbia, voted with the Republican majority in the Senate, where the bill passed 24-6. Local lawmakers split the same way on the voter identification bill.

Lawmakers did not, however, consider overturning any of Nixon�s spending decisions, leaving the University of Missouri Review Commission without authority to use $750,000 set aside for its work. The commission can tap legislative appropriations for expenses that are absolutely necessary, said Rep. Scott Fitzpatrick, R-Shell Knob and vice chairman of the House Budget Committee.

The commission�s funding was included in $115.5 million in spending restrictions imposed by Nixon in July. Revenue growth for the year that ended in June was far below expectations, Fitzpatrick said.

�You can debate on what he selected to withhold, but the amount is absolutely necessary, in my opinion,� Fitzpatrick said.

Debate on the gun bill began more than six hours after the Missouri chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America held a rally in the Capitol that drew almost 200 people. As they dispersed to visit legislative offices for last-minute lobbying, Kristin Bowen of Columbia said the show of strength was important.

�Whatever happens today, we are sending a strong message to legislators who cave to the gun lobby that we are watching,� she said.

The gun measure was subject to more than two hours of debate in the Senate before the sponsor, Sen. Brian Munzlinger, R-Williamstown, submitted the motion to cut off debate.

�What this will allow is those legal, law-abiding citizens to protect themselves from those criminals,� Munzlinger said during the debate.

Democratic lawmakers who opposed the bill questioned why the state is abandoning the training requirements to carry a concealed gun. The �stand your ground� provisions, which allow the use of deadly force in a public situation, will lead to more gun deaths, said Sen. Jason Holsman, D-Kansas City.

�What is the average citizen going to think about the Stand your Ground law?� Holsman said. �I am in fear, so I am going to shoot someone.�

In the House debate, Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Springfield, said the bill only recognizes rights inherent in the Second Amendment.

�It is just as essential a liberty today as it was 200 years ago,� Burlison said. �Those rights weren�t given to us by men, they were given to us by God.�

The voter identification measure has been a priority for Republicans for more than a decade. A 2006 law was declared unconstitutional by the Missouri Supreme Court. The bill passed Wednesday will not take effect unless voters approve Amendment 6, which would negate the court ruling, and lawmakers appropriate money to fulfill its provisions.

Under the legislation, approved 115-41 in the House and 24-7 in the Senate, voters could not cast a ballot without showing the required identification or signing an affidavit that they are the person listed in voter registration rolls. For those signing affidavits, election officials would not count the vote until verifying the signature against records on file from the initial registration.

Voters without the necessary identification or documents to obtain it would be able to get government help securing the papers at no cost.

This story was first published online on Wednesday, September 14, 2016 at 9:04 p.m.