While lawmakers in states like California, New Jersey and Colorado push an onslaught of anti-gun measures each session, legislators in other states are working hard to pass laws that enhance the right of their citizens to keep and bear arms. An excellent example of that is Louisiana, where lawmakers passed and Republican Gov. Jeff Landry signed three such bills over the past few weeks.

House Bill 819, provides that the state shall have the burden of proof in any criminal proceeding in which the justification of self-defense is raised. The measure states: “In any civil proceeding in which the defense of self-defense is raised, the defendant shall have the burden to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that he acted in self-defense. For the purposes of this Article, if the defense of self-defense is raised in a civil proceeding by an authorized person as defined in R.S. 9:2793.12, the burden of proof shall be on the party asserting the action to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that the injury, death, or loss complained of was not caused by a justified use of force or self-defense by the authorized person.”

The measure included identical language for self-defense cases in criminal proceedings.

Another measure passed and signed, Senate Bill 234, prohibits businesses that engage in the practice of discriminating against the firearms and ammunition industries from contracting with governmental entities in the Pelican State. Louisiana is now the eighth state to pass such a measure, with Idaho also passing a similar law this legislative session.

The new law states: “Except as provided in Subsection D of this Section, a public entity may not enter into a contract with a company for the purchase of goods or services unless the contract contains a written verification from the company of both of the following: (1) The company does not have a practice, policy, guidance, or directive that discriminates against a firearm entity or firearm trade association based solely on the entity’s or association’s status as a firearm entity or firearm trade association. (2) The company will not discriminate against a firearm entity or firearm trade association during the term of the contract based solely on the entity’s or association’s status as a firearm entity or firearm trade association.”

Lastly, Senate Bill 301 prohibits payment processors from using firearm/ammunition-specific Merchant Category Codes (MCCs). MCCs are used by payment processors (like Visa and Mastercard) and other financial services companies to categorize transactions.

Historically, firearm retailers were included in the MCC for sporting goods stores and miscellaneous retail. When the new MCC created a few years ago is used, credit card companies and other payment processors can see that the purchases were for firearms, basically creating a de-facto registry of guns and gun owners.

All three of the new Louisiana laws will go into effect on Aug. 1.