A bill that would have made it a crime to expose a gun to a child in Louisiana was soundly defeated 8-4 in a House committee vote Wednesday.
The legislation would have made it illegal to intentionally expose children under age ten to a firearm that was not locked in a container or secured by a locking device.
Introduced earlier this month, HB 1189 was crushed during hearing of the House Administration of Criminal Justice Committee with bipartisan opposition.
“I’m not asking you to give your gun up … I’m only asking you to protect those children,” said Rep. Barbara Norton, (D-Shreveport), the bill’s sponsor to the committee. “I hope one day in the state of Louisiana that we put children first. I am hoping and praying.”
"Sitting behind the testimony table in the House Criminal Justice Committee’s meeting room, Jay D. Hunt III, treasurer of the Louisiana Shooting Association in Slidell, envisioned what would happen if a Girl Scout knocked on his door to sell cookies while he cleaned an unloaded, broken down shotgun on the kitchen table. Under HB1189, Hunt said he would be committing a crime if the child were to see the gun.
ReplyDelete“The goals are laudable, but the bill is poorly written,” Hunt said."
Lets see, we pass a bill outlawing the "exposure" of a firearm in the presence of a child in an open carry state. What could possibly go wrong? The bill doesn't say access Mike, is says exposure. A very vague term.
She actually introduced a safe storage bill last year, but it made no mention of access by children. She just seems to suck at writing bills. Notice how the bill failed with bipartisan opposition?
Agreed, Sarge. This is a horribly badly written bill. This is bad enough that you have to wonder if it was intentional or if the author is really just that incompetent.
DeleteThere was actually a representative in Minnesota that introduced a bill as a favor that a colleague asked of him. My quess in this case though is that it has to do with her aims. Her gun storage bill that she introduced last year was just as bad.
DeleteIt made no mention of access by children, its sole purpose seemed to be preventing the gun from being usable for defense. I'm not sure how it works in Louisiana, but if it were just a wording issue, it could have easily been amended and allowed to progress. Though for some reason, that route wasn't pursued.
Anyone from down that way that could shed some light on this?
There is an exemption to take your kid target shooting, but if they so much as see you clean the guns at home afterward, you’re a criminal.
ReplyDeleteYes, trying to outlaw "exposure" shows the gun control attitude: We mustn't allow children to see an icky gun.
ReplyDeleteMaybe you guys are right. Maybe it's all about the poor wording. I suspect though, Louisiana wouldn't have accepted it if "access" had been used instead of "exposure."
ReplyDeleteWould you? Would you guys accept it with the proper wording?
I agree that "access" would be better and could pass in many states. But the entire bill would have needed to be rewritten to make restricted or unauthorized access to work. The visual presence or exposure of a gun cannot be prevented by the under aged anywhere at anytime. Its impossible to do so if you think about all the visual examples.
DeleteMy question went unanswered. Would you guys accept a bill which prohibited unsupervised access to guns by underage kids, assuming it was properly and clearly worded?
DeleteMike,
DeleteThere is already such a law on the books in Minnesota and I'm good with it.