Jindal: Gun rights extend to movie theaters

Republican presidential hopeful Gov. Bobby Jindal (La.) said that people should be allowed to carry guns wherever they are, including movie theaters, one week after a gunman killed two people in a theater in his home state.

“I’m a big believer that where you are legally allowed to be, you should be able to have your Second Amendment rights as well,” he said Wednesday on CNN’s “The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer.”

{mosads}“There are private property rights issues, I understand that. Somebody has a right to say what they want to do with their private property, but I think the fewer restrictions on law abiding citizens, the better for them and the better for our country.”

Jindal was responding to a question from Blitzer about whether he agreed with fellow GOP presidential rival and former Gov. Rick Perry (Texas), who said Sunday that people should be allowed to carry guns in theaters and other places.

The Louisiana governor also echoed his previous calls to strengthen background checks to include information about mental illness to ensure guns aren’t given to those who shouldn’t legally have them. The gunman in last week’s tragedy in Lafayette, La. had a history of mental illness, but the Associated Press reported that he was still eligible to purchase a firearm in Alabama because he was never involuntarily committed.

“I’m a strong supporter of the Second Amendment, I’m not in favor of new laws restricting the rights of law-abiding citizens, but what we’ve done in Louisiana, we’ve strengthened the reporting of those who have been involuntarily committed,” he said Wednesday on CNN.

“He never should have been able to buy a gun, clearly he should have been involuntarily committed.”