BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — A committee advanced a bill on Tuesday that would remove concealed carry permits in Louisiana.

HB131, authored by state Rep. Danny McCormick, R-Oil City, proposes removing the requirement for a person to have a permit to conceal carry a handgun.

Louisiana State Director of the National Rifle Association Kelby Seanor spoke in support of the bill, saying 27 other states allow concealed carry without a permit.

“This legislation simply puts law-abiding citizens of Louisiana on equal footing with the criminals,” said Seanor.

Courtney Weaver, a woman who says she was shot in the face by her abuser, opposed the bill saying it would “further embolden” people to use gun violence. The Pew Research Center released data showing Louisiana ranked second highest in total rates of gun-related deaths in 2021.

Lawmakers raised concerns about whether people will learn how to use a gun safely.

“We do believe in training, I don’t believe that anybody in this room agrees that you shouldn’t have training,” said McCormick in his closing remarks. “The question is should you have government-mandated training or not.”

Another gun bill advanced out of the same committee would create the Defense of the Second Amendment Act which promises to strengthen Louisianans’ Second Amendment.