Despite a violent start to 2024, Indiana’s new gun laws are probably not going to pass

Indianapolis, Indiana – Advocates for gun rights and regulation responded to the gun violence that occurred during the New Year’s holiday in Indianapolis on Monday.

Both of them concurred that the current proposed law is probably not going to pass the next session.

The Giffords Law Center graded Indiana a D- last month for failing to enact gun control laws that they believe may save lives. Despite the violent start to the year in Indianapolis, the Hoosiers we spoke with predicted that new gun control legislation would not likely pass.

”It’s sad, obviously, but it’s also just part of American life,” said Indianapolis resident Ryan Reed.

Reed claims that he has experienced the impacts of gun violence before.

“I know there’s been a lot of people that I was raised around who aren’t here or are doing time, but yeah,” Reed said.

Next session, two legislation introduced by Democrats aim to lower gun violence. Senate Bill 95 would permit localities to enact their own gun control legislation, while Senate Bill 24 would raise the legal age to carry a gun from 18 to 21. Hoosiers Concerned About Gun Violence President Jerry King stated that both bills are a small but significant step in the correct direction.

”We think that the more success that a community has in limiting people’s access, utilization of guns, reliance on guns…the better it is,” King said.

However, Guy Relford, a lawyer for the Second Amendment and the founder of the 2A Project, stated that both measures are probably doomed from the start.

”The Indiana General Assembly does a nice job of applying a litmus test to different proposals, and saying, for instance, is this law, this proposed law really going to affect criminals and criminal activity, or is it only going to affect law-abiding citizens?” Relford said.

“We’re not really big on change, especially about guns, so it will be, you know, in like review or something for a few years but probably, it will get knocked down or something,” Reed said.

There is a law in the works that would forbid Indiana residents from bringing firearms to voting locations. However, Relford claims that the bill, if passed, would violate the rights of law-abiding citizens because there are already rules against voter interference in place to deal with that very problem.