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The Republican from Jefferson City voted against a gun bill.

This was not just any gun bill, but the mother of all gun bills.

It was 2013, and Barack Obama was in the White House. The National Rifle Association had Republicans in Missouri and elsewhere hyperventilating over the thought that the president was after their guns. Missouri’s House Bill 436 would have taken care of that by nullifying all federal gun laws.

In short, the bill would have allowed Missourians to own fully automatic machine guns, and would have who tried to take them away.

Even supporters of the bill admitted that it was plainly unconstitutional. But they voted for it anyway.

In the House, every single Republican except one supported the bill.

Barnes voted no.

“Our Constitution is not a Chinese buffet,� .

The bill passed and was vetoed by Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat. The veto was narrowly sustained.

The Missouri Constitution now sets the stage for Barnes to rattle partisan cages again.

On Monday, by Speaker of the House Todd Richardson to chair a committee that will investigate the conduct of Gov. Eric Greitens, the Republican who was charged last week with a felony count of invasion of privacy for allegedly taking a picture in 2015 of his blindfolded and semi-nude lover without her consent.

It’s a steaming hot seat for the 38-year-old lawyer.

His history, though, demonstrates that if the evidence against Greitens is enough to lead to impeachment, then Barnes won’t shy away from heading in that direction. Standing alone against one’s own caucus is a lonely place for some politicians, but Barnes has made a career of it.

Travel back to May 2015:

The Missouri Capitol was abuzz with the latest scandal when it was revealed that then Speaker of the House John Diehl, a St. Louis County Republican, had been . As Republicans caucused to figure out what to do, Barnes was one of the few members of the House who wanted to call for a vote on whether Diehl should remain in charge. Barnes was rebuffed, but within 48 hours Diehl resigned as pressure mounted.

Six months later, Republicans nationwide were following the lead of presidential candidate Donald Trump in calling on the U.S. to close its borders to Syrian refugees. Every Missouri candidate for governor — including Greitens — was urging Nixon to reject Syrian refugees in the state, even as leaders in St. Louis were seeking to welcome more of them.

Not Barnes.

In , Barnes referenced Ronald Reagan’s “shining city on a hill� speech. He recalled one of the darkest moments of American history, when in 1939, the country turned its back on 937 passengers, mostly Jewish refugees, steaming toward the U.S. on the German ocean liner St. Louis, only to be turned away. According to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, 254 of those passengers died in the Holocaust.

“If America listens to those who would completely abandon our role as the protectors of the persecuted, that last best hope on Earth will be extinguished forever,� Barnes wrote. “Far better to move carefully, but in the spirit of Reagan and the Pilgrims than to abandon a fundamental American value. America has always been and should forever remain a safe haven for religious refugees.�

This is the man who, perhaps more than any other at the moment, holds the political future of Greitens in his hands.

In 2016, when who were charged with obstruction and trespassing in the Missouri Senate for singing and praying in the Senate Gallery during a debate over Medicaid expansion, Barnes told the jury that the case was bigger than any individual defendant.

“This case is a very big deal,� he said. “This is a case about what it means to be an American.�

So, too, is the case that Richardson has thrust onto Barnes’ lap.

In coming weeks, and perhaps months, the Missouri House will decide whether the governor, in being indicted on a felony, has committed an impeachable offense. If the answer is yes, and the House votes to impeach, the legislative branch will prosecute a case before the judicial branch to determine whether the state’s chief executive should be tossed from the job voters elected him to do.

It’s a very big deal, indeed.