Gov. Bobby Jindal has signed into law one of the more controversial bills from the recent legislative session, one allowing guns to be carried into houses of worship.
View full sizeGov. Bobby Jindal was photographed at Barataria Bay on July 1. Jindal’s office said Tuesday the governor acted on the bill in the past few days after receiving it June 20.
Including the “gun-in-church” bill, House Bill 1272 by Rep. Henry Burns, R-Haughton, Jindal has signed into law 940 of the 1,067 bills the Legislature sent him, vetoed 12, and used his pen to line-item spending measures in four different budget bills.
Burns’ bill would authorize persons who qualified to carry concealed weapons having passed the training and background checks to bring them to churches, mosques, synagogues or other houses of worship as part of a security force.
The pastor or head of the religious institution must announce verbally or in weekly newsletters or bulletins that there will be individuals armed on the property as members of he security force. Those chosen have to undergo eight hours of tactical training each year.
Burns’ original bill was killed by a Senate committee but he tacked its provisions onto a related bill that started out changing the period to have a concealed weapon permit from four years to five years at a cost of $25 a year.
Burns contended that religious institutions in crime-ridden or “declining neighborhoods” need the added protection to ward off thieves and muggers.
The bill also allows a house of worship to hire off-duty police or security guards to protect congregants.
Opponents of the measure said that churches, synagogues, mosques and other houses of worship should remain free of guns and violence and should focus on worship.
Burns’ bill will go into effect Aug. 15.
Jindal has also signed into law Senate Bill 381 by Sen. J.P. Morrell, D-New Orleans, that puts the penalty for a first conviction for soliciting a crime against nature on the same footing as soliciting for prostitution: up to six months in jail, a maximum fine of $500 or both. It changes the crime from a felony to a misdemeanor.
But a second offense for soliciting a crime against nature would be a felony punishable by up to five years in jail, a maximum fine of $2,000 or both. If the initial conviction is solicitation of a youth under 17, the harsher penalties will apply.
The offender must register with police as a sex offender if he or she has been convicted of soliciting a minor on a first offense or after a second conviction of soliciting a crime against nature of an adult.
The new law takes effect Aug. 15.
Jindal also signed House Bill 1474 by Rep. Kirk Talbot, R-River Ridge, a mostly symbolic effort to nullify a key provision of the federal health-care law signed by President Barack Obama this year.
Talbot’s bill targets a section of the new federal law that will require most citizens to get health insurance or face an IRS penalty starting in 2014. It says every state resident “is and shall be free from governmental intrusion in choosing or declining to choose any mode of securing health insurance coverage without penalty or threat of penalty.” But language added to the bill in a Senate committee says the state law cannot supersede the new federal mandate, which meant it will be largely meaningless unless the federal law is struck down in court.
Jindal also signed:
- Senate Bill 528 by Sen. Sharon Weston Broome, D-Baton Rouge, requiring women to get an obstetric ultrasound before an abortion.
- Senate Bill 37 by Sen. Francis Thompson, D-Delhi, which outlaws synthetic marijuana-like incense products.
- House Bill 244 by Rep. Chuck Kleckley, R-Lake Charles, that would allow children to stay on their parents’ health insurance plans through age 26. The bill mirrors a provision in the new federal health-care law.
Ed Anderson and Jan Moller wrote this report. Anderson can be reached at moc.enuyacipsemitnull@nosrednae or 225.342.5810. Jan Moller can be reached at moc.enuyacipsemitnull@rellomj or 225.342.5207.