A bill moving through the legislature could allow additional Indiana officials and their staff to carry handguns inside the capitol complex. (Casey Smith, Indiana Capital Chronicle)
Certain elected officials and their office employees could soon be allowed to carry a handgun inside the Indiana Statehouse — a right already extended to lawmakers and their staff.
Senate Bill 14, which advanced Tuesday from the Senate corrections committee along party lines, stipulates that Indiana’s attorney general, secretary of state, state comptroller and treasurer of state have the right to carry a handgun within the state capitol complex.
That includes inside the Statehouse, as well as the adjacent Indiana Government Center, according to legislative aides.
The proposal now heads to the full Senate chamber.
Author Sen. Jim Tomes, R-Wadesville, said the bill “makes sense,” given high crime rates in the capital city.
“The issue is that it’s a safety factor for the employees who work in this building,” Tomes said. “We’re in a city that’s a little bit different than some of the other cities and towns in our state. And so we just want to try and make provision for our people to be protected in Indianapolis.”
“It stands to reason why people would like to be able to protect themselves, walking from the parking garage or even the parking lot,” he continued. “We just want to make sure that these people have the ability to protect themselves to and from.”
Sen. Greg Taylor, D-Indianapolis, disagreed with that explanation and maintained the biggest threat to those who work in the “heavily-armed state capitol complex” is posed by individuals with a specific vendetta against a state official.
“The interesting part of this piece of legislation that just burns me to my core is the fact that we’re in the City of Indianapolis and, ‘We need to protect it,’” Taylor said. “I need to protect myself in Bloomington, Evansville, Fort Wayne and in every city in this state, because I have that right as a citizen. But I’m getting fed up with people using Indianapolis as a scapegoat for this type of legislation.”
Guns in the Statehouse
The right to bring firearms to the Statehouse has been afforded to General Assembly members since 2017.
That’s when state lawmakers approved a bill — also authored by Tomes — to allow House and Senate staff, along with workers at the Legislative Services Agency and the Indiana Lobby Registration Commission, to carry open and concealed handguns into the Statehouse, as long as they have a permit.
Under state law, staff members aren’t required to tell anyone when they bring a gun into the Statehouse. The House and Senate have adopted rules that require staff to turn in a copy of their firearm permit before they can bring a gun to work, however. Senate staffers must additionally complete firearm safety training, according to internal policy obtained by the Indiana Capital Chronicle.
Policies for both chambers additionally prohibit employees from bringing guns into any meeting related to personnel matters.
Even so, it’s not a crime to carry a gun in the Statehouse. Instead, firearms are prohibited by administrative rules.
Tomes’ newest proposal further supersedes those restrictions.
No training would be required to bring a firearm into the state capitol complex, but they would have to possess a valid license. The same rules apply to state lawmakers and their staff.
Indiana removed the permit requirement to legally carry a handgun in 2022. Individuals can still obtain one for free, though.
And while the initial draft only applied to those four state officers, the bill was amended Tuesday to include full-time employees in their offices, too.
Many state employees and Indiana citizens visiting the Statehouse would remain barred from carrying a handgun inside. But Tomes said there’s interest among some policymakers to expand the right to carry “even more.”
Indiana State Treasurer Dan Elliott, who testified before lawmakers Tuesday morning, said he was surprised when he learned he was one of several officers who couldn’t legally carry a gun at the Statehouse. Elliott was credited by committee chairman Sen. Aaron Freeman, R-Indianapolis, as the impetus for the bill.
“I want to follow the law — follow the policies that were given. I don’t have the same rights that members of the General Assembly do. That’s simply all I’m asking for … that I have that same right,” said Elliott, who noted that he holds a handgun license and has “carried for many years.”
Elliott said other state officers “are all in agreement with this bill,” but Attorney General Todd Rokita, Secretary of State Diego Morales and State Comptroller Elise Nieshalla did not attend the committee hearing.
Not everyone’s on board
Taylor said others who work in the capitol facility lacked enough “courage” to testify on the bill, and said there were “several people” he believed should weigh in on the legislation — including the Indiana State Police, whose officers serve at the Statehouse.
Sen. Rodney Pol, D-Chesterton, also questioned why statewide office holders couldn’t retain authority to prevent their staff from carrying firearms in the office.
“Had this been a bill that was, simply, just for the state office holders … I think I would be a little bit more in support. I wouldn’t see it being as consequential,” Pol said. “But if we’re talking hundreds and hundreds of people that do not have, really, any oversight from their employers, that does give me pause, and I can’t support it.”
Freeman pushed back on the idea: “I don’t think the Second Amendment has a distinction between Republicans and Democrats.”
Republican Sen. Sue Glick, R-LaGrange, had similar concerns and said she only voted for the bill because she does not want to “begrudge state officials the right to carry a gun.”
“I have serious concerns about this bill, especially since it’s been extended to all the staff members … I have reservations about the sheer number of people we’re extending this to,” Glick said. “I find it interesting that elected state officials — including one that was appointed very, very recently — are already considering carrying a gun because you find the job dangerous enough. I have serious concerns about this all the way around.”
Curbing drone-drop contraband
The Senate corrections committee additionally approved a second measure Tuesday that seeks to criminalize the use of drones around and over correctional facilities.
Senate Bill 182 author Sen. Eric Koch, R-Bedford, said recent packages dropped from drones into Indiana jails and prisons have contained tobacco products, cell phones and chargers, marijuana and baggies of methamphetamine, among other contraband.
“This is not a theoretical problem,” Koch said. “This is an actual and ongoing problem.”
Koch’s bill makes explicit in state law that the use of drones to deliver contraband could result in a “charge of trafficking with an inmate.” It could also constitute “interference with public safety” if the drone is intentionally flown over a correctional facility.
The criminal penalty could be a Class A misdemeanor, a Level 6 or a Level 5 felony, depending on what is being transported, whether the items are being dropped into an adult or juvenile facility, and whether the drone interferes with a correctional officer’s duties.
Margaux Auxier, executive director of legislative services for the Indiana Department of Correction (DOC), emphasized that DOC “has had several issues with drones in the vicinity of our correctional facilities.”
She said DOC recorded more than 30 drone sightings in 2023 and over a dozen confirmed drops inside of correctional facilities.
Drones can additionally take photos and videos of correctional facilities, security features and incarcerated individuals themselves — all of which can cause a security threat in the correctional environment, Auxier cautioned.
If adopted, Indiana would join 20 other states that have state laws prohibiting the use of drones over correctional facilities.
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