Utah gun inventor John M. Browning would have a commemorative day in his honor next Jan. 24 under a bill that passed unanimously Monday in the state Senate.

A substitute version of SB272 passed, stripping away a permanent annual state holiday originally sought by Sen. Mark Madsen, R-Eagle Mountain.

The measure drew fire before he introduced it, because he had talked about the gunmaker's holiday sharing the state holiday for slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

Instead, the bill now honors Browning on the 100th anniversary of his semiautomatic 1911 pistol. The model went on to be a standard sidearm for U.S. soldiers, and Madsen said it saved many American lives in World War I trench warfare.

"It contributed greatly to turning the tide of that war," Madsen said.