North Carolina governor vetoes another set of bills, including one on guns in private schools

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Democratic Gov. Josh Stein cleared his desk Wednesday of the deluge of bills passed to him from the North Carolina General Assembly last month, three of which he vetoed.

Stein topped off his veto total at 14 for this year’s legislative session. One of the vetoes prolongs the extensive battle between the governor’s office and GOP-controlled legislature over gun laws — an issue Republican lawmakers prioritized when they came to Raleigh.

Now that all of Stein’s vetoes have been returned to the Legislative Building, possible veto override attempts could occur starting later this month. House Speaker Destin Hall reaffirmed that possibility in a post on the social platform X.

“We’re keeping score. Overrides coming soon,” Hall said.

With Republicans one House seat short of a veto-proof supermajority, GOP leaders may have to pick and choose which measures to take action on. A few bills with some Democratic support may be able to skirt by.

The first vetoed bill would allow certain people to carry firearms onto private school property with permission from the school’s board of trustees or administrative director. The person — either an employee or a volunteer — would be required to have a concealed handgun permit and complete a training class. Republican proponents of the bill said it would keep private schools safe in rural areas where police response time is longer.

Stein argued in his veto statement that school employees and volunteers “cannot substitute” law enforcement officers, who receive hundreds of hours of safety education, when crises occur. The governor did voice support for another provision in the bill that would heighten penalties for threatening or assaulting an elected official. He urged the legislature to “send me a clean bill with those protections so I can sign it.”

“Just as we should not allow guns in the General Assembly, we should keep them out of our schools unless they are in the possession of law enforcement,” Stein said in the statement.

Some Democrats in the House and Senate voted for the bill originally, meaning a veto override is on the table.

The fight over guns was the focus of a previous bill Stein vetoed a few weeks ago that would allow adults to carry concealed weapons without a permit. That bill faces an uphill battle to becoming law after a handful of Republicans voted against the measure, making the chances of a veto override fairly slim.

GOP state legislators have continued to carve out further gun access over the past few years. In 2023, Republican lawmakers overrode former Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto and put into law the elimination of the pistol purchase permit system that mandated character evaluations and criminal history checks for applicants.

The other two bills Stein vetoed Wednesday also received some Democratic votes and thus could be overridden if such support holds.

One of the bills would create an expedited removal process for homeowners and landlords to remove people unauthorized to live on their property. Stein said he was unhappy with a last-minute addition that would prevent local governments from enforcing their own prohibitions on pet shop animal sales and additional licensing beyond statewide rules. The other bill would bar public agencies from collecting or releasing certain personal information about donors to 501(c) nonprofits.

The governor signed nine bills into law Wednesday. Two were omnibus criminal justice and public safety measures, raising penalties on many crimes or creating new criminal counts. Another was designed to help active-duty military and veterans with reduced government fees and improved access to higher education.

___

Associated Press writer Gary D. Robertson contributed to this report.