“I am committing to you right now it is coming back until it gets passed,” said Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester, who fell two votes short of the required two-thirds majority to override the veto.
Like all the other tries over the past five years, the Democrats who control the Legislature were unable to get the necessary support from Republicans, even though all GOP lawmakers initially voted with the majority to send the bill to the governor. Two Republicans, Christopher Connors of Ocean County and Jen Beck of Monmouth County, voted with Democrats on Thursday. Eleven others voted against the override.
The measure would have required law-enforcement agencies to communicate more closely with the courts when someone with a record of mental illness sought to have that record expunged in order to purchase a firearm. Current law does not allow for those authorities to give judges significant information on applicants for expungements, such as pending charges and criminal history, which could affect their decision-making. The bill also would have required applicants to notify law enforcement if they were planning to purchase a firearm.
