By: Julie O’Donoghue | Louisiana Illuminator
Louisiana legislators may greatly expand the list of elected officials allowed to carry a concealed handgun into the State Capitol.
Though Louisiana has permissive gun laws, there are tight restrictions on who can have a concealed gun on their person at the statehouse. State legislators and the attorney general are the only elected officials allowed to carry weapons inside the Capitol currently.
Sen. Rick Edmonds, a Baton Rouge Republican who is running for Congress, has proposed extending the same privilege to the six other statewide elected officials in state government: the governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, state treasurer, insurance commissioner and agriculture commissioner. Plus, each of those officials would get to pick a designated staff member to also carry a firearm in the Capitol.
The Senate voted 37-0 for Senate Bill 277 Tuesday.
Under the proposal, any elected official or selected staff member who wants to carry a concealed firearm in the Capitol would have to obtain annual certification from the Council of Peace Officer Standards and Training.
Unlike the legislators and attorney general, there would also be restrictions on where these six other officials and their staff members could have their guns in the building. They could not take them into legislative committee rooms or the House and Senate chambers.
Edmonds said he added the restrictions on where the guns can be brought at the request of Terry Alario, the Capitol security director.
Security personnel for the governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general, who can carry their weapons anywhere, are not subject to restrictions in Edmonds bill.
At a hearing on the bill last week, the Senate Judiciary C Committee moved the legislation forward without discussion. Secretary of State Nancy Landry’s office submitted the only card in support of the bill. There was no opposition to the proposal.
Edmonds’ original bill was far more expansive. It would have allowed multiple members of the statewide officials’ staff to carry guns at the Capitol. It also contained no restrictions on where they could have a concealed weapon in the building. He rewrote the proposal before the committee meeting.
Huey Long was assassinated in the Capitol in 1935 at the age of 42, one of the most consequential political events in Louisiana’s history. Long, a former governor, was serving in the U.S. Senate and considering a run for president at the time.