A new study released last week by the Center for American Progress analyzed 10 key measures of gun violence and found that Louisiana is worst among the 50 states. Included in the report is a 50-state ranking of law enforcement feloniously killed by guns: Louisiana ranks second worst in the nation behind South Dakota.

Congratulations have to go out to the NRA for this one. Good work, NRA, your valiant efforts have helped catapult Louisiana into the lead for much-coveted status as "America's Somalia" Good attempt, South Dakota, but you're not really in the overall running here. Both Dakotas can still feel good about themselves, though, since both were highly ranked on the recent corporate-libertarian "freedom" scale , and nothing says "freedom" being able to easily kill police officers. If you want to be a real hellhole of gun violence, though, you'll want to be a conservative-dominated southern state.

So why does the NRA get a special shout out here? Because they went to special efforts to ensure that, in Louisiana, even violent criminals and the seriously mentally ill were still allowed to carry concealed weapons.



Gun laws in Louisiana prevent the state’s law enforcement officers from doing their jobs, and put them at a much greater risk of gun violence. Last November, the state passed an NRA-backed ballot initiative that enshrined gun ownership in the constitution and removed provisions that prohibited certain individuals, such as domestic abusers and the seriously mentally ill, from carrying a concealed weapon. In March, a judge ruled that the amendment outlawed a “state statute forbidding certain felons from possessing firearms,” noting that “The courts cannot question the wisdom of fundamental law and frustrate the will of the people.”

And this is only the final kicker in a long line of pro-gun, anti-law-enforcement measures undertaken in the state.

You have to be impressed with this. No matter what side of the "debate" you're on, you just have to be impressed that the NRA went to the mat for a constitutional amendment demanding criminals, violent abusers and the mentally ill be allowed to wander around with whatever guns they want—and that Louisiana's legislators and voters both give the notion a thumbs-up. I guess ol' Wacky Wayne LaPierre wasn't being entirely sincere about wanting "background checks" to encompass only the mentally ill, or rather, I guess the NRA wanted that list for recruitment purposes, not enforcement purposes.

So congratulations go to the NRA and all the fine states that don't give a flying damn about even their own law enforcement officers because the Newly Revised Second Amendment, Invisible Ink Edition means everyone gets to be decked out in preparation for killing anyone else, especially if they're from the government but also schoolchildren, theater-goers, people in supermarket parking lots and your ex-spouse or that girl in school who you had a thing for and have been following around ever since, if they deserve that sort of thing. The rest of you anti-freedom prudes should just surround yourself with armed guards if you don't like it, you liberty-hating liberty haters.

