LSU Manship School News Service

Senate bill No. 1 which was approved 6-1 on Tuesday would allow anyone in Louisiana over the age of 18 to carry a concealed handgun without a permit as long as they are not prohibited by law from owning a firearm. 

The House and Governmental Affairs committee follows action elsewhere in the Capitol on Tuesday that expanded capital punishment to include electrocution and injection of nitrogen hypoxia. The bill would keep secret the means and methods of execution of a death-row inmate.

Rep. Tony Bacala, R-Prairieville, a retired chief deputy from the Ascension Parish Sheriff’s Office in southeast Louisiana, said his proposal “shields officers and departments from frivolous, B.S. civil action.” Democrats who opposed the bill, however, said it was a dangerous expansion that would protect bad actors.

ouisiana, which tops lists for both incarceration and crime, moved Friday toward almost entirely eliminating parole and dramatically shrinking good-behavior sentence reductions.