With Governor Gary Herbert’s veto of House Bill 76 Friday, lawmakers in the Utah House and Senate will have to decide whether or not to call a special session and attempt to override that veto. HB 76 would allow anyone over the age of 21 who can legally possess a firearm to carry it concealed from view without a permit as long as a round of ammunition is not loaded in the chamber of the gun. Utah House Speaker Rebecca Lockhart says lawmakers will wait until April 3rd before making any decisions. That’s the deadline for the Governor to sign or veto all of the bills passed in this year’s session.
“At that point the constitution requires us to do a poll of the members. We will do one in the House and the President will poll the members in the Senate. And the question before the House is ‘do you want to convene and override?’ And if there are two thirds in the affirmative, then we will convene,” said Lockhart.
The bill narrowly passed with a two thirds majority in both the House and Senate, but Senate President Wayne Niederhauser says some members could change their minds.
“I’m just not sure how hard or soft all those votes are. If there are a number of soft votes then I would assume that there’s probably not enough votes to override the Governor’s veto. If those are pretty hard then I think there may be a good chance of that. But we won’t know until we actually poll our members,” said Niederhauser.
Lawmakers have until May 13th to call a special session and move forward with a veto override.