BATON ROUGE, La. (ABP) — A Louisiana Senate committee has shelved a controversial bill that would have allowed worshipers to carry concealed weapons inside churches, synagogues and other houses of worship.
The state’s Senate Judiciary B Committee voted 3-0 June 8 to kill the bill, which had passed the Louisiana House by a 74-18 vote in May. However, it remained quite controversial, with many clergy members across the state speaking out against it. That controversy slowed the bill’s progress in the Senate.
Henry Burns (Louisiana House photo)
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State Rep. Henry Burns (R-Haughton), the bill's main sponsor, contended that allowing churches to have licensed and armed parishioners during worship services would help deter violence. He noted the increased numbers of violent incidents — including last year’s murder of an Illinois Baptist pastor while he was in the midst of a Sunday-morning sermon — at houses of worship in recent years.
“So you think this is a safety program?” state Sen. Karen Peterson (D-New Orleans), a member of the panel, asked Burns before the vote, according to the Baton Rouge Advocate.
He replied that he feared the times required it. “I was born and raised with Mayberry, riding my bicycle any time of the day or night,” he said, referring to the idyllic fictional town that served as the setting for "The Andy Griffith Show" in the 1960s. “But we live in different times.”
After the committee defeated it, Burns said he thought the bill stood a better chance of passing if brought before the full Senate, the Associated Press reported. He was considering an attempt to get it attached as an amendment to another bill that would make it to the Senate floor.
Were the bill to pass and be signed into law, Louisiana would join only six other states that allow people to carry concealed weapons in houses of worship.
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Previous ABP story:
Louisiana House passes bill allowing guns in church (5/13/2010)