Published: April 8, 2026
By: Izzy Wollfarth, LSU Manship School News Service
BATON ROUGE — A bill that would have criminalized unsecured firearm storage when a minor or prohibited person could gain access to the weapons failed Tuesday in the Senate Judiciary C Committee.
Sen. Blake Miguez, R-New Iberia, who is running for Congress, and five other Republicans voted against advancing the bill. Sen. Regina Ashford Barrow, D-Baton Rouge, who authored the measure, was the only Democrat present and the only vote in favor.
Barrow addressed the emotional consequences of unintentional gun deaths of children. “I personally have witnessed the tragedy and the hole that it leaves in families,” she said.
Barrow said she had spoken at length with the Louisiana Shooting Association and with Miguez before the committee hearing.
Daniel E. Zelenka II, an attorney and president of the Louisiana Shooting Association, opposed the bill during Barrow’s closing remarks, calling it unnecessary. He referenced other leading causes of death among minors in Louisiana.
Read more at Livingston Parish News.
LSU Manship School Statehouse Bureau 
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