Lawmakers Override Concealed Carry Veto: How Your Reps Voted

llinois lawmakers had until July 9 to pass a law governing concealed carry — and they did it by the skin of their teeth, making Illinois the last state in the country to allow concealed weapons.

Read: Romeoville Reacts to Illinois' New Concealed Carry Law

On Tuesday, Senators voted 41-17 to override Gov. Pat Quinn's veto on the state's compromise concealed carry bill, while the House voted 77-31 to nix Quinn's amendments, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Last week, Quinn sent back an amendatory veto with what he called "common sense changes" to the state's concealed carry bill, including language that would ban weapons for establishments that serve alcohol. Another provision would permit gun owners to carry one concealed weapon at a time with only 10 bullets.

Read: Illinois Concealed Carry Bill Amended by Gov. Quinn

The majority of lawmakers, however, didn't see eye to eye with the governor on the changes, striking them down on Tuesday to get the bill passed by today's deadline.

How local representatives voted:

• Rep. Tom Cross (R-Oswego): Yes
• Rep. Larry Walsh Jr. (D-Joliet): Yes
• Rep. Emily McAsey (D-Lockport): No
• Rep. Natalie Manley (D-Joliet): No
• Sen. Linda Holmes (D-Aurora): Yes
• Sen. Jennifer Bertino-Tarrant (D-Shorewood): Yes
• Sen. Pat McGuire (D-Joliet): Yes

"We needed to pass a concealed-carry law today for two important reasons: to comply with a federal court mandate, and to ensure we have a statewide set of reasonable rules," he said in the release.  

McGuire emphasized the need to pass reasonable gun safety measures prior to the federal court’s July 9 deadline, but also expressed interest in continuing to explore the issue of gun safety in Illinois. 

"If time shows this new law warrants improvement, we can consider improving it through future legislative action," he said.

Bertino-Tarrant also spoke out in support of the law.

“The bill that we passed in May was the result of many months of hard work and compromise.  A number of governor’s proposed changes went too far and would have made the bill impossible to pass as amended," she said in a statement, echoing McGuire's call for exploring the issue of gun safety.

“Making sure we had a solid framework in place by the federal deadline was imperative," Bertino-Tarrant said in a statement. "However, I will always be interested in continuing the conversation on gun safety and working on ways to improve the measures that we passed.”