Jay Nixon splits the difference on gun bills

• File
• Nixon vetoes one gun bill, passes another.

Missouri’s General Assembly passed a bumper crop of bad legislation earlier this year, and Gov. Jay Nixon has responded by firing up his veto pen.

Today Nixon struck down a repellent gun law that was hyped as a measure to protect Missourians’ basic rights but revealed legislators’ habits of cherry-picking the parts of the Constitution they like and ignoring the rest.

So House Bill 436 has gone up in flames, unless lawmakers can pull enough mules to secure a veto override.