Louisiana vying for Baldwin Top Ten

I'm guessing that the Louisianan State Legislators didn't appreciate not making it to the Baldwin Top Ten states with the least restrictions on gun ownership, well, maybe not, but they sure as hell want to protect the right of the state's citizens to keep and bear arms. Last week, a proposed Constitutional Amendment passed the Senate Judiciary Committee and went to the full senate Monday where it passed 31-6.



NOLA: Right to bear arms is taken seriously in the Senate

BATON ROUGE -- The Senate voted 31-6 late Monday to assure Louisiana residents they have a strict right to own and bear arms. Senate Bill 303 by Sen. Neil Riser, R-Columbia, now heads to the House for debate.
Riser said that if it's adopted, Louisiana would have the strongest gun protection laws in the nation.

The proposed changes are as follows:

The right of each citizen to acquire, keep, and bear possess, transport, carry, transfer, and use arms for defense of life and liberty, and for all other legitimate purposes is fundamental and shall not be abridged but this provision shall not prevent the passage of laws to prohibit the carrying of weapons concealed on the person denied or infringed, and any restriction on this right shall be subject to strict scrutiny. 

Words which are struck through are deletions from existing law; words in boldface type and underscored are additions.


It's nice to see the word 'bear' defined, but does this mean that the citizens of the sportsman's paradise are going to have Constitutional Concealed Carry or losing Constitutional Open Carry? Since there is no law against Open Carry, the state would have to show a compelling state interest to change that and I doubt that will happen.

If approved by the House, the proposed amendment will be put on the ballot for the November 6 election. I just hope they don't screw up the language on the ballot.