Gov Jindal's Constitutional Carry #Fail

by:Neil W. McCabe

When Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal spoke to the National Rifle Association’s 2014 meeting in Indianapolis, he gave the impression that he favored the restoration of American gun rights.But, a scant fortnight later back in Louisiana, the Republican Party led by Jindal killed a bill that would have brought constitutional carry to the state.

Constitutional carry is ultimate restoration of American gun rights because it means the Constitution is your permit. If you want to keep and bear arms, you can. Simple. It is just as it was before somebody got the idea that armed citizens were a problem. 

Now, if you want a concealed carry permit in Louisiana, you are looking at $300 and a six to nine-month. This is in a state where we saw law and order absolutely breakdown in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Such was the chaos that when the police and sheriffs were not looting or gunning down innocent citizens in the streets, they were going door-to-door and seizing privately-owned firearms out of private homes.

Of course, before and after Katrina, there were and are whole neighborhoods in the state abandoned by law enforcement, leaving citizens to fend for themselves.

At the time, Jindal got big points for speaking at the 2014 NRA convention, when other candidates for the White House declined the opportunity. 

It is too bad that he support of restoring gun rights stopped when he walked away from the podium.

In Washington, the battle to restore gun rights is dead in the water—killed by the Republican leadership, except for the fake bills filed or just announced and never filed that were designed to help incumbents with tough primaries.

The action has moved to the states, so that is why I am focusing on how the battle to restore gun rights is playing out in the 50 laboratories of democracy. This “neo-federalism” is real and unless advocates for gun rights shift focus from Washington to their own state houses, they will find themselves in the same boat as gun owners in New York, Maryland, Connecticut and other states where the liberals partnering with Republican leaders were able to steamroll new restrictions in gun rights.