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Lawmakers seek to stop gun purchases by domestic abusers

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BATON ROUGE - A bill aimed at ending gun sales to people convicted of misdemeanor domestic abuse was moved forward by the Louisiana legsilature Monday. The bill's sponsor, Rep. Helena Moreno (D-New Orleans) said she hopes to close a loophole in a 2014 law.

City courts oversee misdemeanor cases of domestic abuse but are not required to report convictions to the state supreme court, which would then forward them to the National Criminal Background Check System database.

The bill requires city courts to report the convictions. It passed the state House of Representatives Monday with no opposition.

"We just want to make sure we're being consistent," Moreno says. "These people who are not supposed to have a firearm, we want to make sure law enforcement and people selling firearms knows that about them."

Misdemeanor cases where the defendent please not guilty by reason of insanity are also part of the bill.

Moreno said she didn't know how many people who had not been added to the national database had purchased a gun.

The bill now heads to the Senate.

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