INDIANAPOLIS — Visitors to the Indiana Statehouse are prohibited from bringing weapons into the building, but the lawmakers who represent them aren’t.
Now some of those lawmakers want to loosen the gun controls that employers and local communities have instituted around the state.
Legislation that would allow more people to bring firearms legally into public buildings — by barring local governments from limiting guns in most public buildings — is among a handful of bills that proponents argue will increase public safety.
“Wherever you are, it could be a library, a county council meeting, or any kind of social meeting, if there are people sitting in that room with concealed weapons permits and they’re packing, that’s the safest room in that building,” said state Sen. Johnny Nugent, R-Lawrenceburg, a longtime guns-right advocate.
Nugent thinks that would be so in the Indiana Statehouse as well, where visitors have been barred from bringing in weapons since 2007. Nugent is among a group of legislators who have a permit to carry concealed weapon, and often do so when the legislature is in session.
“I want to be able to carry anywhere,”Nugent said. He wants the 250,000 Hoosiers who also hold concealed weapons permits to do so, too.
Not all lawmakers feel that way.
State Sen. Greg Taylor, D-Indianapolis, defended communities that have instituted local gun control laws to curb crime.
“There are differences in the communities in which we all live,” said Taylor, during a vigorous debate in the Senate Monday. “Those differences are distinct when it comes to public safety.”
Nugent and Taylor illustrate those differences, both men acknowledged. Taylor represents an urban district plagued by gun crime; he said there were more than 70 firearms-related deaths in Marion County last year.
Nugent is a board member of the National Rifle Association and hails from rural southern Indiana; he grew up learning how to use firearms while hunting with family members.
“We started out as kids with our Red Rider BB guns, and progressed up,” Nugent said.
Among the bills the two men disagree about is Senate Bill 292, which would prohibit local communities from enacting stricter gun laws than regulations already set by the state. Any current gun-control laws in place, such as banning guns from public parks or public meetings, would be rescinded.
The bill, which passed the Senate Monday, and now moves onto the House, was amended in committee to exempt courthouses and allows local judges to use their discretion in determining a gun ban in their courtrooms. The bill also exempts employers who regulate employees carrying firearms at work.
But those changes weren’t enough for some lawmakers, including state Sen. Tim Lanane, D-Anderson, who said communities should retain the right to craft their own gun-control policies.
“Those local people know the needs of their communities better than we do,”Lanane said.
Debate over several gun bills is expected to continue in coming days, but Nugent and others predict gun legislation will have success. Republicans are in the majority in both the House and the Senate this session, and as Nugent noted, “there are a lot more conservatives in the legislature this session.”
Other gun bills that have progressed this session are:
Senate Bill 154, which would allow Hoosiers to carry loaded firearms while operating an off-road vehicle or a snowmobile. The Senate approved the bill, and it’s now in the House.
Senate Bill 411, dubbed the “Parking Lot 2.0” bill. It’s an extension of a law the General Assembly passed last year that allows employees to keep guns in their vehicles while parked in an employer’s parking lot. The bill allows employees to file civil litigation if employers inquire about their gun ownership. The bill passed the Senate and is now in the House.
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