A series of new Indiana Gun Laws went into effect July 1st. These laws do a wonderful job at protecting both the rights of gun owners, as well as their privacy.
The first law I will briefly discuss centers around the right of a legal gun owner to keep a legal firearm locked safely in their vehicle while they are at work without fear of being fired by their employer. This law is common sense. Most people spend more time in their vehicle traveling to and from work than on any other trip. By telling a legal gun owner with a carry permit that they cannot keep their firearm locked safely in their vehicle while they are at work also tells them that they cannot have a firearm for protection while traveling to and from work. This law closes that loophole.
Next, let's talk about the other portion of the same bill (HB 1065), the Emergency Powers law. After Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast, emergency powers were enacted by the government. As part of those emergency powers, firearms were banned, and gunowners had their otherwise legal firearms confiscated. Obviously, this gives criminals the advantage of knowing that their law-abiding victims will now be unarmed. Indiana's new law prevents the state from confiscating legally owned firearms in the case of a declared emergency. This will allow gunowners the ability to protect themselves should a situation ever arise where organized government is temporarily out of service.
Finally, Indiana has also chosen to protect the privacy of gun owners. Previously, any person willing to pay the fee was able to receive a copy of all gun permit owners in Indiana. A Bloomington newspaper took advantage of this and printed information about where the concentrations of gun owners were in their community. Any criminal who read the article knew what blocks were now the safest targets for them, as they had the lowest number of permit holders. Also, sophisticated criminals may have gotten the idea to acquire the list for themselves and used it to target specific homes instead of specific neighborhoods. It would have been only a matter of time until some newspaper or internet site would have printed the actual list in detail, and endangered the lives of many who chose not to posess a firearm. This new law prevents anyone but police and other authorities from having access to this list. A wise move.
