North Carolina House overrides multiple vetoes; bills on firearms, immigration, energy and privacy advance

The North Carolina House of Representatives on July 29 voted to override a string of vetoes from Gov. Josh Stein, advancing a package of measures that split lawmakers along familiar policy lines on public safety, immigration, energy and transparency.

Lawmakers opened with procedural business before taking up a roster of vetoed bills sent from the governor. Representative Bell moved to override the governor’s objections on numerous measures; debate centered on the public-safety and civil-rights implications of each proposal.

The session’s most contested early item was House Bill 193, described in the clerk’s reading as “firearm law revisions.” Proponents including Representative McNeely argued the bill protects Second Amendment and private-property rights and gives private schools an option to allow armed volunteers or staff where SROs (school-resource officers) are unavailable. Opponents, led on the floor by Representative Moore, cautioned that the measure would “insert more firearms into the community without any regulation, without any oversight, without any training,” and urged colleagues to sustain the governor’s veto. After debate and a successful motion to close debate, the House voted 72–48 to override the veto, sending HB 193 to the Senate by special message.

House Bill 318—titled in the reading as the Criminal Illegal Alien Enforcement Act—also drew…