If you cut out the second sentence, the courts would have free reign to choose the level of review when determining if a law is constitutional. This is why the current provision is meaningless -- the courts assigned it the lowest level of judicial review (rational basis). By including the second sentence you force the courts to recognize the right to keep and bear arms as a fundamental right and require a strict scrutiny level of review.
The courts determine the constitutionality of statutes (laws). In doing so, they typically choose from 3 different levels of judicial review -- rational basis, intermediate scrutiny, and strict scrutiny. Rational basis is the lowest level of protection. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Scalia plainly asserted that this level of review cannot protect a fundamental constitutional right (e.g. speech, right to vote). The highest level of protection is strict scrutiny and this level is reserved for the protection of fundamental rights. Post Heller and McDonald, state and federal courts have refused, in almost all cases, to give the fundamental right to keep and bear arms the highest level of protection and have usually assigned intermediate scrutiny or other rights infringing analysis.
In Louisiana, the state's Supreme Court has made the current right to keep and bear arms provision meaningless because they assigned it the lowest level of review -- rational basis. The proposed amendment requires the Louisiana courts to accept the right to keep and bear arms as fundamental and raises the necessary level of review to the highest level -- strict scrutiny. In short, the proposed amendment requires the right to keep and bear arms to be viewed by the courts under the same protections as your right to free speech and right to vote -- this has never been done on the state or federal level.
Additionally, the proposed amendment removes the legislature's constitutional authority to ban concealed carry. Very few states have the express constitutional authority to ban concealed carry -- even so, 49 states regulate the carrying of firearms. The removal of this provision will protect law-abiding Louisianan's right to carry.
If you agree with restoring and providing the strongest state-level protections for the right to keep and bears, I would encourage you to enthusiastically vote "YES on 2."
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