03/05/2008

By DENA POTTER  / Associated Press

Senators came up short Wednesday in an attempt to override Gov. Timothy M. Kaine's vetoes of bills that could have resulted in more concealed weapons in cars and restaurants.

The Senate voted 25-15 to override Kaine's veto of a bill that would have allowed people who don't have a concealed weapons permit to transport a gun in a locked glove box or other interior compartment of a vehicle.

Senators voted 22-18 to override the veto of a bill to allow permit holders to carry concealed weapons into restaurants and bars as long as they didn't drink alcohol.

A two-thirds vote of both chambers — 27 votes in the 40-seat Senate and 67 in the 100-member House of Delegates — is required to override a veto.

Kaine vetoed both bills on Tuesday.

It was the governor's second veto in three years of the guns-in-cars proposal, which he called contrary to existing law by allowing those without a background check and training to conceal a handgun.

Sen. Jill Holtzman Vogel, R-Winchester, called her bill a "very practical solution to a very simple problem." She said allowing a gun to be locked in a glovebox is a safe alternative to having it on the seat in plain view, as the law now requires.

Law enforcement officers objected to her bill, saying they are better off being able to see any weapon in a vehicle during a traffic stop.

Kaine also pointed to law enforcement concerns in vetoing Sen. Emmett Hanger's bill to allow concealed guns in bars.

Currently, guns must be visible when carried into restaurants.

Sen. Kenneth Cuccinelli, R-Fairfax, asked opponents if allowing someone with no concealed-carry permit to take a gun into a bar and drink as much as he would like as long as the gun was out in the open was better than permitting a law-abiding citizen who had undergone a background check and wasn't allowed to drink to carry one that was hidden from sight.

"I'll take my chances with the open-carry guy, because I see what he's got and I can tell him to get out," Senate Majority Leader Richard Saslaw replied.

Hanger pointed out that 36 states allow guns in restaurants. It should be allowed in Virginia, he said, for the "law-abiding citizen who wants to go out to Red Lobster with your family and have your concealed-carry weapon with you."

"Since you don't like for people to leave their gun locked up in their car ... it would only make good sense that you ought to keep your weapon on your person if you're properly licensed to do so," Hanger said.