20 states already with permitless carry and still this.
Indiana Senate leaders kill ‘constitutional carry’ bill despite wide GOP caucus support
Republican Senate leaders in Indiana have killed a so-called ‘constitutional carry’ bill that would have nixed carry permits for handguns in Indiana.
The bill had seemed to have significant momentum until recently. The move comes despite more than half of the Senate Republican caucus signing on as co-sponsors to the bill, which already had passed the Indiana House.
Under the proposal, certain offenders still would have been prohibited from carrying handguns.
Fort Wayne Republican Sen. Liz Brown, the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee where the bill has been sitting, declined to give the bill a hearing before the deadline, effectively killing the legislation.
Instead, in the last week bills can be heard in committee, she gave a hearing to a resolution emphasizing the Indiana Senate’s commitment “to protect the constitutional right to keep and bear arms.”
While Senate Resolution 39 says the Senate supports firearm rights, it does not eliminate permits. Unlike bills, such resolutions are largely symbolic and do not have the force of law when passed. The committee did approve the resolution.
Senate President Pro Tempore Rodric Bray, R-Martinsville, posted on Facebook defending the decision to not give the bill a hearing on Friday. The Martinsville Republican said he never made any promises to give the bill a hearing, regardless of the number of co-authors.
Bray’s main concern was a provision that requires various government agencies to create a database detailing who cannot carry a firearm. He, and others, argued creating that database by the deadline in the bill just is not doable.
“Law enforcement believes being able to access this information in the middle of the night during a traffic stop is important and thus, so do I,” Bray said. “The bottom line is law enforcement’s ability to determine who is prohibited from carrying a concealed weapon is important and this bill does not achieve that.”
He pointed to a number of organizations that had concerns about the bill, including Indiana State Police and Second Amendment rights groups The National Association of Gun Rights and Hoosier Gun Rights.
“Obviously, our Second Amendment freedoms are critically important and we intend to preserve it,” Bray concluded on his post. “I have concerns with moving forward with HB 1369 for these reasons.”
Senate will make lifetime permits free
Bray said the Senate does plan to pass language making the lifetime permit free, replacing those dollars that usually go toward police training with other money in the budget. Already, the five-year license to carry is free.
The ‘constitutional carry’ measure had passed the Indiana House by a 65-31 vote in February, with only a couple of Republicans joining with Democrats to vote against the measure.
Senate Majority Leader Rodric Bray, R-Martinsville, greets fellow members of the Indiana Senate on Organization Day at the Indiana Statehouse in Indianapolis, Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2020, marking the start of the 2021 legislative session.
Proponents of the bill argue Hoosiers should not have to pay for a constitutional right, and that criminals do not follow the laws anyway.
“This bill is for the lawful citizen in the state of Indiana,” Bill author Ben Smaltz, R-Auburn, said in committee earlier this legislative session. “This bill is for the person who obeys our laws who right now has to jump over the hurdles to be the person that gets the permit.”
The resolution heard in committee, filed on April 1, says the Indiana Senate believes as a matter of policy that Indiana should “oppose any punitive taxes, fines, confiscations, restrictions, or prohibitions concerning lawful firearms, accessories, or ammunition” and that Indiana “will not comply with or assist in any attempts, state or local, or foreign or domestic, to restrict the constitutional rights of Hoosiers,” among other provisions.
“If the federal government decides to come here and sharpen their teeth on Indiana we can say this is where we stand on this,” resolution author Sen. Jim Tomes, R-Wadesville, said before the committee voted to approve the resolution. “We recognize what this county has been given 240 years ago.”
Brown said she was not available to answer IndyStar questions, and Smaltz declined to comment until he had spoken with a local media outlet.