New state law grants $500 tax incentive for firearm safety equipment

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - Gun legislation is typically a polarizing topic when it comes to politics with almost completely different views coming from the left and the right. But when it comes to safety, everyone seems to be on the same page.

State Rep. Mandie Landry, a progressive Democrat from New Orleans, suggested a $500 tax incentive for you to purchase firearm safety equipment. She first ran it by her more conservative colleagues.

“I ran it by them because I know they’re also in favor of proper handling of guns and proper storage. And one of them literally said I don’t know how anybody could be against this,” said Rep. Landry.

From there the rest was history, quickly gathering bipartisan support throughout the legislature. With this new law, you can write off up to $500 on your taxes, and it allows only one such credit per taxable year. It pertains to things like safes, gun safes, gun locks or any device that is meant to store guns and requires a key or code to access.

“If you’re going to buy a firearm, you really need to buy a gun safe at the same time, but there’s a lot of people who’ve owned one for a long time and giving them this credit is giving them a little bit more encouragement to get one,” Landry added.

Chelsea Tessier at Jim’s Firearms in Baton Rouge said they could not be happier.

“We’re excited to see people take gun safety seriously and know that preventing unauthorized access is a big deal. If someone broke into your house, you don’t want them to just be able to easily access your firearm. So, keeping it locked up and safe not only at home but when you’re traveling, not leaving it in your car is really important. I think we’ve all seen a rise in that on things like the NextDoor app with people stealing guns from people’s cars,” said Tessier.

Unauthorized access to people’s guns has become more and more common in recent years, with most guns stolen from people’s cars. Chelsea said anytime the government wants to give you a check, you should take it, especially when it comes to an investment that protects not only your family but also your valuable belongings.

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