By: Julie O’Donoghue | Louisiana Illuminator
Louisiana legislators voted this week to expand the list of public officials who can carry a handgun in the State Capitol.
Senate Bill 277, sponsored by Sen. Rick Edmonds, R-Baton Rouge, would allow six more statewide elected officials to carry a firearm in the statehouse, and each one could designate a staff member to be granted the same privilege.
Currently, state legislators and the attorney general are the only elected officials who can carry handguns there. Edmonds’ legislation adds the governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, state treasurer, insurance commissioner and agriculture commissioner to that list.
The proposal will become state law unless Gov. Jeff Landry vetoes it within the next two weeks.
Under the legislation, any elected official or selected staff member who wants to carry a firearm in the Capitol would have to obtain annual certification from the state’s Peace Officer Standards and Training Council.
There would be limitations on where the six other officials and their staff members could have their guns in the building that don’t exist for legislators and the attorney general. They could not take them into the House and Senate chambers or legislative committee rooms.
Edmonds said in March 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.
Louisiana places more restrictions on who can bring concealed firearms into its Capitol because of the building’s history.
Huey Long was assassinated at 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.
The new law would take effect Aug. 1.