As of July 4, anyone over 18 in Louisiana can carry a concealed weapon without a permit — with some serious caveats.
Gun rights advocates have hailed the new law as a win for constitutional rights, while opponents, including some law enforcement agencies, warn the relaxed restrictions will make communities less safe.
But the expanded liberty is much more limited than the messaging around it suggests. In practice, experts on both sides of the issue say gun owners should get a permit if they want to confidently carry a concealed firearm.
And in Lafayette, large parts of the city prohibit carrying a firearm without a permit.
Just this week, UL Lafayette declared the Science Museum a gun free zone, in effect making the entire Downtown district a no-go area for carrying a firearm without a permit.
School zones, bars and parades all create buffers where it’s illegal to carry a hidden firearm without a permit. Federally owned property makes it a felony to carry a firearm altogether. Because of the patchwork of zones, gun rights advocates argue that it’s best to get a permit despite winning passage of what they call “Constitutional Carry.”
“I have maintained to everyone I’ve talked to ever since working on Constitutional Carry, that you should still get a permit if you plan to carry with any regularity,” says Everett Baudean, Louisiana Shooting Association vice president and a private attorney who lobbied for the law.
School Zones
School zones present the most frequent complication in Lafayette.
Carrying without a permit in a school zone, a radius of 1,000 feet from campus, is a felony punishable by up to five years of hard labor. The Gun-Free School Zone Act of 1990 makes carrying in a school zone without a permit federally illegal as well.
“In any municipality with a lot of schools, this is the main reason you would want to have a permit,” says Baudean. “It would be extremely difficult to carry with regularity without one.”
Lafayette has a lot of schools, and the law applies to both private and public institutions.
This week Lafayette Consolidated Government released a map marking the active zones in the parish. The concentration of schools in Downtown Lafayette effectively put the district off limits. The same goes for areas around UL.
“This is the most restrictive prohibited location under the law. There are many places where you cannot carry a firearm, but violation of the school zone law is the only felony,” says Baudean.
Some municipalities have added new school zones to carve out gun-free districts. The New Orleans Police Department designated its 8th District station a vocational school, which creates a restricted 1,000-foot school zone in the heart of the French Quarter.
The Lafayette Police Department announced this week that UL Science Museum had been designated a firearm-free zone.
“Signage has been placed on the building, the boundary goes out 1,000 feet,” LPD noted in a press release.
The Science Museum’s centrality in the heart of Downtown connects with other campuses — Cathedral-Carmel School, Ascension Day School, First Baptist Christian School — and creates a restricted zone from the Rosa Parks Transportation Center south to Johnston Street, merging with school zones buffered around UL’s campus.
Restaurants, Bars and Businesses
Dining and music experiences are a large part of the community in Lafayette. Many of these locations are subject to the already restricted school zones due to location.
However, for those who do not fall into these zones, the law gets tricky.
“This has been by far the most confusing prohibited location since we enacted concealed carry,” says Baudean. “There is no rule about where you can and can’t sit in the restaurant as some people believe.”
Under current interpretations, permitless concealed carry is not allowed in bars but allowed in restaurants. It comes down to the different alcohol licenses in play. Bars and restaurants that have Class A-General permits prohibit permitless concealed carry. In general, this license is employed by bars and restaurants that do not allow anyone under 21.
Most restaurants operate on Class A Restaurant permits, which require that more than 50% of their sales come from non-alcohol. Carrying without a permit is allowed in those establishments — provided the business owners allow it. (Carrying a concealed firearm while drinking is legal up to 0.05 BAC.)
Apart from state law, businesses are free to regulate firearms on their own property. A visible “no firearms allowed sign” on entrances is sufficient to declare the prohibition, and store owners do not have to notify local police of that requirement.
Law Enforcement and Public Safety
The political debate around permitless carry often revolves around whether it makes cities and their citizens safer. Some law enforcement groups opposed Louisiana’s permitless carry bill, arguing it would make it harder for agencies to police gun violence.
But Lafayette police say not much is going to change when it comes to day-to-day enforcement efforts.
“The new gun law will not change how officers interact with the public in Lafayette. We will continue to offer professional police services to the community as we always have,” says Sgt. Robin Green, LPD’s public information officer.
But gun control advocates say discarding permit requirements will inevitably make routine law enforcement more complicated and more dangerous.
“One of the critical benefits of a permit system is that it allows law enforcement to quickly verify that a person who is carrying a gun is doing so legally — that they have passed a background check and completed safety training,” says Olivia Li, legal counsel for Everytown Against Gun Violence.
Hiding a firearm, by definition, means it would not be normally visible to officers. And carriers have a duty to inform officers only if they are stopped. This is why both gun-rights and gun-control advocates alike encourage permits and education.
“It is also never a bad idea to get training, and any competent concealed handgun instructor will give you an overview of the laws regulating concealed carry,” says Baudean.
An increase in accidental deaths and gun violence is the primary concern for gun control advocates.
Researchers have linked removing permit requirements with an increase in gun-related fatalities. West Virginia saw a 29% increase in firearm deaths in the years after it passed a permitless carry bill in 2016, according to a study by the American Journal of Public Health. A Johns Hopkins University analysis of research data over 20 years found a 32% increase in gun-related assaults in states that removed training requirements for concealed carry permits.
Baudean and other gun rights advocates dispute that a weapon’s concealment is the principal cause of more violence, particularly with respect to mass shootings. But, he nevertheless has concerns about safety and a lack of education.
“The only concern I would have is that with concealed carry, there are several unsafe methods which people still use far too often, like putting an unholstered gun into a purse or pocket,” says Baudean.
In terms of education, to prevent events like negligent discharge, the Louisiana State Police has a free online training course. The course goes through the basics of concealed carry much like a permit course would. LPD also has shared information about the new law on its social media site.
In Louisiana, the onus is on carriers to de-escalate situations. Louisiana’s aggressor law states that they cannot argue self-defense if the gun carrier is the aggressor or “brings on difficulty” in an altercation.
This is partially why gun experts and police departments say it is important for all gun carriers to read the laws themselves and understand a proper self-defense mindset. “A common refrain among instructors is that the day you strap on your pistol is the day you choose to lose every argument,” says Baudean.