Trailboss, did you even read what I said about NOT MANDATED? To restate it the key here being that the gun safety education is optional and not mandated. There was NO concession of the right mentioned, only a concession of paying a limited rate specific tax to provide education and public awareness, I can possibly see even having a sunset for this tax after some number of years..
I am all for constitutional carry in theory, but I must admit Dave_M has a point when it comes to the gun fumbling public one tends to find in a concealed carry class. So in concession to this I would be for a constituional carry law in the state tied to a public gun safety education campaigned to be paid for by tax of not more than 1% tied to firearms / ammo sales in the state, the key here being that the gun safety education is optional and not mandated, it shoudl also be mandated that funds can't go to anti-gun campaigns.
p.s. this tax can even be made invisible to the end user, for example did you know that every store / wholesaler and producer that sells eggs in Louisiana has to pay a 1 cent per dozen tax, plus an anual license fee, so that by the time the typical package of a dozen eggs gets to the consumer it has been taxed by 1 cent 2-4 times. In theory this tax goes to pay for Louisiana egg inspectors.
It is called a dedicated tax, we have plenty of them already, in this case it would be to tax a specific category of item (guns) to pay for public awareness / gun safety programs. To give a real world example where a very similar thing is already done in the state of Louisiana, there is a tax that is collected on all fresh strawberries grown or sold in Louisiana, for the case of those that are grown the tax is actually collected on those little green plastic baskets at the supplier level, so it is already paid when the strawberry farmers buy them, for companies that bring fresh strawberries in from out of state they must pay the tax on the amount they import. This tax is used to fund promotion and public awareness of Louisiana strawberries and is operated by the Louisiana dept of Agriculture.
ummmm...any "Bubba Redneck" can carry now (legally) after doing a "class" and submitting the paperwork/fee.
Honestly, I assume that everyone is carrying anyway.
I hope it gets passed, but it probably won't. Why? Money. The state is in a deficit and that would be money lost.
IF the law passes do those folks get a refund that have already paid?
You would still need the chp for reciprocity in other states.
You would still need the chp for reciprocity in other states.
Glad to see this is back on the table, and that we'd be the 8th state to have it. Also glad I didn't spring for the "lifetime" permit.
Without even going into the infringement issue, the current permit process is a huge waste of time and money.
The lifetime permit has no value, unless Louisiana doesn't change the law in the next 20+ years. I feel bad for anyone who got suckered into it.
However, you will most likely still need a permit for reciprocity.
Very little value at least.
Reciprocity is important for many but I'd bet most people don't venture outside of the state all that often. And when they travel by air most leave the guns at home. Personally I have never checked a firearm in luggage and if I'm going any distance by car I often leave the guns at home just so I can skip out having to research all the nuances of every state's gun laws.
Reciprocity will become less of an issue as more states become constitutional carry states. As it is, concealed carry reciprocity is far from 100%.
If Bel Edwards is the pro-2nd Amendment governor he led everyone to believe he was as the pro-2nd Amendment candidate, and with a majority republican Legislature, this could happen.
My guess though, is the budget and economy issues are so big and so concerning, this gets buried.