A La. House bill to allow off-duty cops and concealed carry permit holders to bring their guns into eateries that serve alcohol has been killed in a Senate Committee.

Haughton Rep. Henry Burns says his bill's original intent was to allow law officers to eat at restaurants that serve serve liquor, without leaving their weapon in the car.

A policeman, basically, is never off-duty. And so that was the purpose and the catalyst behind the bill. Now, in committee it was amended to conceal carry.

Burns says opponents thought amending the bill to include all holders of concealed carry permits would kill the measure. Instead, it won committee approval, then was passed out of the House.  Burns says people naturally feel safer with an armed law enforcement officer nearby.

When they go to lunch break or have lunch with their family and they're eating at an establishment, there might be a bar in the back, they are theoretically breaking the law. We should not have a law that actually causes a law enforcement officer to be guilty of an infraction.

Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee didn't voice strong opposition to the bill, but they clearly don't like it. Burns did not seek to amend out of his bill the addition of concealed carry permit holders. Burns says he may bring his bill back as an amendment to other legislation.

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