Bills won't make it to Governor's desk after midnight deadline

ST JOSEPH COUNTY, Ind. -- Time's up for Indiana's most recent legislative session.  Many are saying, it doesn't seem lawmakers got a lot of work done. 

More than half of all senate and house bills were left on the table, unfinished. 

Even though the GOP holds the majority in both the Indiana House and Senate, there were a lot of arguments to figure out what bills to pass before the clock struck midnight. 

Some of these bills dealt with the age of consent, cold beer sales, and paid personal leave from employment.

Others dealt with a highly debated subject: firearms. 

Those bills discussed whether or not a Hoosier can carry a gun at a church on school grounds, changing policies on permits for handguns, and the licensing fee for firearms. 

The proposed bill would have done away with the $125 lifetime licensing gun fee. 

"There have been some complaints about the fee being extravagant for the lifetime license. It's well over 100 dollars," says Benjamin Blatt.

Blatt is a firearms attorney for several Michiana gun shops, including Top Shot Armory in St. Joseph County.

He says owning a gun is an inalienable right.

"I don't like licensing fees in general, because you're telling someone, 'hey you have this right, but if you want to carry a firearm in public, you have to pay this extravagant fee," he explains. "What the fee does is it deters people from getting a license to carry."

Blatt says it's common misconception that this bill would have made it easier for people to purchase guns. 

"There's general resistance to what seems to be a loosening of gun laws," he says. "It isn't. I would call it an easing of restrictions on people who have income level issues."

He says he hopes Hoosiers have the chance to learn more about gun laws, by going to a gun shop and talking with employees, before it comes down to the next legislative session.

ABC57 News reached out to Rep. Timothy Wesco from Osceola, who authored the bill, for a comment.   

As of air time on Friday, he had not responded. 

The next Indiana legislative session begins January 2019.