BELLEVUE, WA – The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms is congratulating Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry for signing a “Constitutional Carry” bill Tuesday, fulfilling his promise to voters to champion their right to keep and bear arms.

With Landry’s signature, Louisiana becomes the 28th state to adopt “permitless carry,” and CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb said the remaining states, by declining to adopt similar laws, are “essentially telling their residents they are second-class citizens.”

“Louisiana lawmakers and Gov. Landry have taken a bold step for public safety,” Gottlieb stated. “Meanwhile, legislatures and governors in the remaining 22 holdout states are signaling that they do not trust their citizens with the most fundamental right of all, the right of self-defense. What a shameful message to telegraph to the people they are elected to serve.”

Louisiana now joins Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia and Wyoming where Constitutional Carry is the law. The Louisiana law fittingly becomes effective July 4. 

“At the time of the Founding,” Gottlieb noted, “citizens of the newly-established United States did not need permits to carry firearms for personal protection. They would have considered such a requirement to be absurd. You should not need a government permit to exercise a constitutionally-enshrined right. Today, more than half of the states have returned to this baseline of liberty, and we can only hope that the remaining states will soon amend their narrow attitudes about Second Amendment rights.

“After all,” he observed, “criminals don’t bother with permits, or any of the other restrictive gun laws that have prevented honest citizens from defending themselves and their families. Our hats are off to Louisiana lawmakers and especially Gov. Jeff Landry for fulfilling his promise to sign permitless carry into law.”