Guns and laws: Louisiana legislators joining national debate over gun control

Louisiana legislators are preparing to join the national debate over gun control and Second Amendment rights.

New laws regulating the purchase and storage of firearms are among a few dozen filed for the session that starts April 8.

December’s massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn., prompted the Obama administration and some in Congress to call for stricter gun-control laws.

Such proposals have met staunch opposition from gun-rights advocates, including the National Rifle Association, who express concerns that more regulation will infringe on Americans’ Second Amendment right to own and bear arms.

Voters in Louisiana, a mostly conservative state where many covet their right to hunt and own guns, overwhelmingly approved a state constitutional amendment in November aimed at strengthening residents’ gun rights. It requires courts to apply “strict scrutiny” when determining whether a law violates the Second Amendment. To be upheld, gun laws would have to demonstrate a specific and “compelling governmental interest” or be scrapped as unconstitutional.

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