Indiana Political Establishment Kills Constitutional Carry
Jose Nino
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Although 2021 has been a big year for Constitutional Carry, it did face one stumbling block in Indiana.
Dean Weingarten of AmmoLand touched upon how Indiana could have passed Constitutional Carry :
The House passed the bill 64 – 31. A majority of Republicans in the Senate called for the bill’s passage.
Indiana’s Constitutional Carry bill, HB 1369, had 21 co-sponsors — all Republicans — in the Senate, which is made up of 50 members.
Weingarten put some more perspective on the partisan composition of the Indiana Senate:
The Indiana Senate has 39 Republicans and 11 Democrats. The opposition of key Republican leaders killed Constitutional Carry through the simple expedient of inaction.
Republican State Senator Liz Brown was the one responsible for killing the bill by never even bothering to schedule it for a committee hearing before the legislative deadline.
Pro-Second Amendment organizations like the National Association for Gun Rights voiced skepticism toward Indiana’s Constitutional Carry bill. NAGR representatives noted that the bill featured poison pill amendments which would have prolonged the date the bill would have gone into effect. In addition, the bill would have set up databases that had the potential of infringing on the Second Amendment rights of Americans.
These provisions along with others have concerned NAGR and grassroots groups affiliated with it. NAGR’s Deputy Director of Field Operations Chris McNutt had this to say about HB 1369:
“Indiana has a Republican super majority, yet they are acting like Democrats by trying to water down and kill Constitutional Carry. They need to pass a clean bill like the other 18 states that were able to pass Constitutional Carry without a flawed government database attached to it,” McNutt stated.
While 2021 turned out to be a dud for Constitutional Carry in Indiana, there are plenty of opportunities for pro-Second Amendment Hoosiers to introduce a clean, Constitutional Carry bill that would generally improve upon Indiana’s gun laws.
The key is that gun activists and principled lawmakers make sure future bills are not filled with sketchy poison pill provisions. Moreover, the grassroots has to keep the pressure on the politicians, because as we know all too well they will not act on these issues unless they receive great pressure from an electorate they cannot ignore.
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