BATON ROUGE - On July 6th Governor Bobby Jindal signed into law House Bill 1272 that allows concealed handguns to be carried into churches, synagogues, or mosques. He sent a letter to Catholic bishops shortly after signing the bill because they had expressed some opposition to the idea.

Louisiana’s Catholic bishops decided that they would let their pastors know that this would not be permissible in their churches.

State Rep. Henry Burns’ proposal triggered controversy and heavy criticism in newspaper editorials but he said that his bill is important so that church leaders had a new option for purposes of security.

“I don’t have a problem with them opting out of it,” Burns said of the Catholic bishops.

Priests and ministers are supposed to notify the congregation in churches that allow concealed handguns.

Danny Loar, executive director of the Louisiana Conference of Catholic Bishops, said that so long as the bill was optional the Conference would remain neutral as it to its opinions of the bill.

Burns’ earlier attempts to introduce the bill, first as an attachment to other legislation, was met with plenty of resistance. The idea was revived when Sen. Joe McPherson attached similar legislation onto a separate bill dealing with handgun permits.

Burns says that the bill, “just allows them to use their members that have concealed carry permits as part of their security.” Also, it has spurned more discussions about security at churches in general.