This is truly a historic day!

For the first time in the history of Louisiana the legislature will hold a veto session to consider all bills vetoed by the Governor during the regular session, including the Constitutional Carry bill, SB118.

(Take Action immediately to urge your legislators to OVERRIDE the Governor’s veto of Constitutional Carry bill SB118!)

The veto session begins at noon on Tuesday, July 20, and cannot exceed five calendar days in length. This means that even if the legislature has not considered all of the vetoed bills by the end of July 24, the session will still come to an end.

In order for the Constitutional Carry bill (SB118) to become law, two-thirds of each house of the legislature must vote in favor of the bill. To reach two-thirds, 70 members of the House and 26 members of the Senate must vote in favor of SB118.

During the regular session SB118 passed both chambers of the legislature (House and Senate) with veto-proof margins (meaning at least two-thirds of each chamber voted in favor of the bill). But veto overrides are hard to come by in Louisiana. In fact, a governor’s veto has only been overridden twice in the history of Louisiana, with both overrides occurred during the regular session of the legislature.

Louisiana Governors do not want to look weak by having their vetoes overridden, and our current Governor is no exception. He is using every trick, threat, and back room deal at his disposal to make sure that those Democrats, and even a few Republicans, who voted in favor of SB118 won’t vote to override his veto.

There are a handful of legislators in the House and Senate that, either by direct action of the Governor or from a lack of support of Constitutional Carry during the regular session, may swing the outcome of SB118 one way or the other.

If any of the legislators identified below are your legislators, it is imperative that they hear from you and that you urge them to SUPPORT SB118! (If you don’t know who your State Representative or State Senator are, use our Legislator Lookup tool to look them up.)

House Members

• Roy Adams(I): Voted Yes for SB118 during regular session.
• Chad Brown(D): Voted Yes for SB118 during regular session.
• Robby Carter(D): Voted Yes for SB118 during regular session.
• Travis Johnson(D): Voted Yes for SB118 during regular session.
• Jeremy LaCombe(D): Voted Yes for SB118 during regular session.
• Francis Thompson(D): Voted Yes for SB118 during regular session.
• Joseph Stagni(R): The only Republican to vote NO for SB118.
• Stephanie Hilferty (R): Absent on all Constitutional Carry votes, including SB118.
• Barbara Freiberg (R): Absent on vote for SB118.

Senate Members

• Gary Smith (D): The only Senate Democrat to vote Yes for SB118.
• Ronnie Johns (R): Voted Yes for SB118 during the regular session, but stated that he will not be attending the veto session.
• Patrick Connick (R): Voted Yes for SB118 during the regular session, but is now opposed to Constitutional Carry. (I encourage everyone to read the article on Senator Connick’s change on Constitutional Carry.)

Also, it is important that all Louisianans contact Senate President Page Cortez ((225) 342-9990) and House Speaker Clay Schexnayder ((225) 342-7263) and urge them to SUPPORT Constitutional Carry bill, SB118.

As I stated above, the veto session is constitutionally limited to five calendar days, and there is no guarantee that all the vetoed bills will be heard. And, just as in the regular session, the Senate President and House Speaker have the power to decide which bills will be considered and how fast any particular bill moves.

In fact, it is being reported (I encourage everyone to read this article!) that the House and Senate leadership are trying to avoid taking up a number of bills, including SB118, under the guise that there are not enough votes to override. However, several legislators have adamantly refuted this fact, stating that the leadership has not even taken a vote count on any of the bills to know where they stand.

We need to make it crystal clear to the Senate President and House Speaker that SB118 is too important of a bill to play politics with. Call Senate President Cortez and House Speaker Schexnayder TODAY!

We have made history in many ways this session: not only by passing Constitutional Carry out of committee for the first time ever and seeing it go all the way to the Governor’s desk with bipartisan, veto-proof support, but also by having the first veto session ever!

Now I am asking you to dig deep for one last push to make Constitutional Carry the law in Louisiana!

If you can, call your State Representative and State Senator (especially those legislators identified above) and ask that they SUPPORT SB118 by OVERIDDING the Governor’s veto. (If you don’t know who your State Representative or State Senator are, use our Legislator Lookup tool to look them up.)

And then call Senate President Cortez ((225) 342-9990) and House Speaker Schexnayder ((225) 342-7263) and ask that they do the same.

Then use the form above to send them a pre-written follow up email.