By Jim Siegel
Gannett Columbus Bureau

COLUMBUS - The next two weeks will be key to determining whether a deal is reached between Gov. Bob Taft and House leaders over a bill allowing Ohioans to carry concealed handguns.

When lawmakers return from their Christmas vacations this week, the gun bill they passed in mid-December will still be waiting for them.

Although the House and Senate passed the bill, the formalities are still not finished. The bill remains on the desk of House Speaker Larry Householder. He and Senate President Doug White have to sign the measure before it officially goes to Taft.

The governor's office has been trying to work out a deal so he doesn't have to veto the bill, which would set up a veto override showdown with fellow Republicans in the Legislature.

Householder can hold onto the bill as long as he likes, and as long as he does the clock does not start on the 10-day window in which Taft must sign the bill, veto it, or let it become law without his signature.

Orest Holubec, spokesman for Taft, said something should happen within the first half of January. A spokesman for Householder said there is no new progress to report.

"We have not heard either way from House leadership what they are planning on doing with it," Holubec said. "We have no reason to be pessimistic."

Taft has threatened to veto the bill over public access to records of who has applied for a permit to carry a concealed weapon. He thinks the public should have the right to find out who is carrying concealed guns. But the House has refused to go that far, instead allowing only journalists to request permitting records by asking for individual names.

The governor wants lawmakers to pass a separate measure dealing with the public records issue, which he said would allow him to sign the gun bill.

Bill sponsor Rep. Jim Aslanides, R-Coshocton doubts that's going to happen. "I'm still of the position that we've compromised to the extent that we can," he said.

Both the House and Senate likely have enough votes to override a Taft veto.