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Tag: louisiana
Gun Violence

Louisiana's New Gun Law: Concealed Carry, No Permit Or Training

A bill that will allow Louisiana residents to carry a concealed firearm without a permit is headed to the desk of Republican Gov. Jeff Landry. The bill would also remove current requirements for new gun owners to have their fingerprints taken and attend a training course on firearm safety. Landry has already indicated he intends to sign this bill into law.

The Republican governor is also set to sign a new batch of “tough on crime” bills authored and approved by a GOP-dominated state Legislature. These bills increase the number of crimes that are subject to prison sentences and lengthen sentences for existing crimes.

Louisiana currently has the second-highest incarceration rate in the nation. It also has the second-highest firearm mortality rate and the second-highest homicide rate. How are Republican legislators addressing these issues? By putting more people in prison and increasing potential gun violence.

When you add in people held in local jails, Louisiana has the nation’s highest overall rate of imprisonment. Thanks to relatively low spending per prisoner, it doesn’t make the top 10 when it comes to the overall cost of incarceration. However, it still manages to blow through better than $1 billion per year on correctional facilities.

The new legislation would add 60 crimes to the list of those ineligible for probation or a suspended sentence, ensuring that every conviction results in prison time. It would also increase the time prisoners must serve before they are eligible for parole.

The new legislation also makes juvenile court records public, even though they are typically sealed to protect minors. That means even a crime committed as a juvenile will now be visible to potential employers and others for the rest of a young offender’s life.

Meanwhile, the state Legislature is also pushing through a permitless concealed carry law that dumps the state’s previous requirements for training. An 11-state study by researchers at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health showed that dropping training requirements for those carrying concealed weapons resulted in an average of 21 additional gun assaults per 100,000 population.

Considering how closely Louisiana trails Mississippi for the top spot in gun deaths (28.6 gun deaths per 100,000 population in Mississippi vs. 26.3 per 100,000 in Louisiana) this seems like just the ticket to move the Bayou State to the top of the chart.

For comparison, Louisiana’s rate of gun deaths is three times greater than California's and almost five times greater than New York’s. But then, those states both require permits.

Meanwhile, as it prepares to spend more money on prisons, Louisiana turned down federal funds to feed 594,000 hungry children this summer and falls 20% below the national average on spending for education.

Still, Landry is looking at one cost-cutting move to shorten some prison sentences: The governor reportedly wants to add hydrogen gas as a death row execution method and make electrocutions a thing again.

Maybe he’ll try using both at once. Oh, the humanity.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Sen. Josh Hawley

Hawley Seeks To Strip Federal Funding From Schools With Mask Mandates

Reprinted with permission from American Independent

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) wants to strip school districts of federal funding if they require students to wear masks or get the COVID-19 vaccine — even as the delta variant continues to tear through the country.

Hawley announced on Monday that he will introduce measures to restrict funding to schools over COVID safety precautions as part of 15 amendments he wants to tack to the budget resolution Democrats released earlier that day. Democrats are hoping to use the budget resolution to pass a major infrastructure bill that includes many of President Joe Biden's priorities.

Hawley's proposals come as states across the country are seeing a surge of COVID-19 cases, thanks to the highly contagious delta variant.

Cases among children have skyrocketed, with the American Academy of Pediatrics announcing on August 5 they've seen a "substantial increase" in the number of children contracting the virus.

Doctors in hotspots including Florida and Louisiana — which are currently experiencing the worst outbreaks in the country — say they are seeing more and more children admitted to hospitals and intensive care units.

But Republican lawmakers like Hawley have been fighting efforts that public health experts say can end the pandemic.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy let slip that nearly one-third of Republicans in his caucus have refused to get the COVID-19 vaccine at all. And many House Republicans are also against wearing masks.

Doctors say masks are especially important now for kids ages 11 and under, as they are currently ineligible to receive the vaccine and thus do not have immunity.

It looks unlikely that Hawley's amendments will pass, as Democrats have a majority in the Senate.

However, Florida's GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis has already threatened schools that require masks, saying they could risk state education funding for implementing the policy. Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has made similar threats, saying that schools or businesses that require masks could risk fines.

Major school districts are already defying both DeSantis and Abbott, announcing mask requirements amid the surge of COVID-19 cases.

The Dallas Independent School District on Monday announced that it will require all students, staff, and visitors to wear masks in order "to protect staff and students from the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus."

And a handful of school districts in Florida are also defying DeSantis' ban on mask requirements, including Leon County schools, which includes Florida's capital of Tallahassee. Cases there are skyrocketing, and intensive care unit beds are nearly all full, according to data from the New York Times.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.

#EndorseThis: Colbert Fries Trump’s Bayou Babble

#EndorseThis: Colbert Fries Trump’s Bayou Babble

Like so many Trump speeches, especially now, the president’s address to energy workers in Louisiana was a rambling mess. He got to the bayou on the taxpayer’s dime, but largely talked trash about his potential Democratic opponents, including “Boot-edge-edge,” “Pocahontas,” and “What the Hell Happened to Joe Biden.”

And like any other Trump speech, this one is much funnier with meta-commentary by Stephen Colbert. When the president veers onto a tangent about the dangers of wind power, Colbert knows what’s really on his mind: fried chicken, extra crispy.

But Colbert himself is preoccupied with Trump’s trade war. What is it good for? He explains, and you’ll laugh.

 

 

Just click.

At Taxpayer Expense, Trump Delivers Campaign Speech In Louisiana

At Taxpayer Expense, Trump Delivers Campaign Speech In Louisiana

Trump on Tuesday traveled on the taxpayer’s dime to Louisiana, where he was supposed to be giving a speech about “promoting energy infrastructure and economic growth” in America.

But Trump went off on inappropriate tangents on multiple occasions at the event, during which he attacked his potential 2020 Democratic rivals and even bribed Louisiana voters with a new bridge if only they reelect him to a second term.

“I think we’re going to win it big,” he said of the 2020 election. “I’m looking at the competition. You sort of dream about competition like that, but who knows. Who knows.”

Trump then mentioned a number of the candidates running against him and gave commentary about their candidacies.

“I got Boot-Edge-Edge [South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg], I got ’em all,” Trump said. “I got Beto — Beto’s falling fast, what the hell happened? Remember about four weeks ago he said, ‘I was made for this.’ He was made for this, he was made to fall like a rock. What happened?”

 

He went on to attack former Vice President Joe Biden and Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders.

“I don’t know what the hell happened to Biden? I’m looking, I said that doesn’t look like the guy I knew. What happened to him?” Trump said. “And Bernie? Bernie’s crazy. But Bernie’s got a lot more energy than Biden, so you never know… But it’s energy to get rid of your jobs.”

Then Trump turned to his racist attacks on Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).

“Pocahontas I think is probably out,” Trump said. “Boy, you’ve got some beauties. Three-hundred-fifty million people and this is what we can do.”

After that untoward rant, Trump then quite literally bribed the voters of Louisiana with a new bridge — but only if they vote for him in 2020.

“If we win this election — which is just 16 months away — we’re giving you a brand new I-10 bridge,” Trump said.

“We’ll have it all set to go day one, right after the election,” Trump added.

Aside from campaigning and bribing voters, a visibly sweaty Trump also went off on his usual tangents of congratulating himself on his 2016 Electoral College win and ripping on wind power and other clean energy policies.

Taxpayers should already be angry that their tax dollars went to fund such a rambling and chaotic speech.

But the fact that Trump used that hard-earned money to campaign is simply beyond the pale.

Published with permission of The American Independent.