Illinois Becomes Final State To Legalize Concealed Carry [UPDATE]
By Chuck Sudo in News on Jul 9, 2013 10:15PM
Update: The Illinois Senate also voted to override Gov. Quinn's amendatory veto, making Illinois the final state to allow concealed carry of firearms.The Sun-Times has a breakdown of the House vote here. (PDF)
Quinn called the vote "a bad day for public safety in Illinois."
As expected, the Illinois House overwhelmingly voted to override Gov. Pat Quinn amendatory veto on the concealed carry legislation Tuesday. The 77-31 vote was more than the 71 votes needed to override the veto and, according to the Sun-Times, there was no discussion necessary before the vote.
Quinn used his amendatory veto powers last week to rewrite the bill, which he called "a flawed bill with serious safety problems that must be addressed," to make it more restrictive than the compromised legislation House and Senate leaders agreed upon at the end of the spring session in May. Since then, Quinn has gone on a PR blitz to rustle up support for his rewrite and said he was prepared for a "showdown" on the bill.
The bill's chief sponsor in the House, Harrisburg Democrat Brandon Phelps, accused the governor of grandstanding and said Quinn should look at Chicago's rash of shootings if he wants to get serious about gun control.
The bill now moves back to the Senate, where it will go to a vote if the Senate Executive Committee decides to not review Quinn's changes. If the Senate votes to override Quinn's veto, the bill becomes law in time for a Tuesday deadline set by an appellate court to have a concealed carry law on the books.
But Senate President John Cullerton said some of the issues raised by Quinn in his AV could be revisited in the future.
“Even though the Senate president will be supporting the override so that we don’t waste any time getting reasonable regulations on the books, he did think that there are a lot of issues raised in the amendatory veto that are worth further discussion,” Cullerton spokeswoman Rikeesha Phelon said.