UL Lafayette has backed away from its decision to designate the Downtown Science Museum a safe school zone and has instead posted signage that the building itself is a weapons-free facility.
The university’s decision comes amid weeks of back and forth on the designation and enforcement of the zone and a day after Attorney General Liz Murrill confirmed her office was preparing a legal opinion on the issue. A gun rights organization, represented by a Lafayette attorney, threatened a suit this week.
By law, school zones create buffers where it’s illegal to carry a hidden firearm without a permit. Had the Science Museum kept the original gun-free zone designation, a permit would have been required to carry a gun in the 1,000-foot radius of the Science Museum, a major exception carved out in Louisiana’s permitless carry law, which took effect July 4. UL operates the museum, but the building is owned by the City of Lafayette.
Instead, no permit will be required in the zone around the Science Museum, but the building itself is off limits to firearms.
Just last week Mayor-President Monique Blanco Boulet said the Lafayette Police Department would enforce the 1,000-foot gun-free school zone, deferring to UL’s declaration that the museum is part of its campus and thus a firearm-free zone.
But today the university changed course, saying it now believes the definition of a school’s campus may not extend to property the university does not own, including the two hotels the university recently leased for student housing. UL said in a statement it had already removed the “safe school zone” signs and replaced them with “weapons-free facility” signage.
Here’s the university’s statement:
Louisiana law, R.S. 14:95.6, requires universities to post signs identifying firearm-free zones at university campus entrances. The state law is ambiguous in defining what constitutes a “campus,” so the University of Louisiana at Lafayette looked to the federal Clery Act, that governs campus crime reporting, for a definition. The Clery Act definition of campus expressly includes property owned or controlled by the university, which led to the posting of the “Safe School Zone” signs.
The University sought additional clarifications from the Acadiana legislative delegation and their legal staff. This led to the determination that under state law, the definition of campus may not extend to property that the University does not own. Accordingly, the University has removed the “Safe School Zone” signs erected at the Science Museum and at the hotels being used as temporary student housing, because they are not owned by the University.
The University works to avoid infringing on any constitutional rights while also ensuring the safety and welfare of our students. Therefore, as authorized by state law, the University has replaced “Safe School Zone” signs with “Weapons-Free Facility” signage that precludes firearms within these facilities but does not establish any zones outside them.