How New Orleans will skirt Louisiana's new concealed carry gun law in the French Quarter
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New Orleans City Council president Helena Moreno joined the DA's and NOPD's top brass yesterday at the 8th District police station in the French Quarter. Photo: Carlie Kollath Wells/Axios
The NOPD's French Quarter police station will soon be permitted as a vocational school, allowing New Orleans city officials to skirt a new state law loosening gun restrictions as they work to keep firearms off of Bourbon Street.
Why it matters: The new state law will allow people 18 and older to carry a concealed firearm without a permit beginning July 4. City officials say New Orleans' existing ban on permitless carry will stay in effect, but only until it expires Aug. 1.
The big picture: Louisiana lawmakers passed the legislation during a special session on crime earlier this year.
- The new law makes Louisiana the 28th state to allow permitless concealed carry, the AP reports.
- The law passed despite push-back from New Orleans lawmakers and police, who said it would make for dangerous situations, especially in dense areas like the French Quarter.
State of play: "We were not just going to sit back and say, 'Oh, well,'" said City Council president Helena Moreno during a press conference Monday.
- Instead, city officials created a workaround — though they're not calling it that — by shifting some NOPD training to the 8th District police station, which they're in the process of having permitted as a vocational school and thus the hub of a new gun-free zone.
- "We're looked at every law on the books to make sure we're getting this right," said District Attorney Jason Williams, thanking "volunteer assistant district attorney" and New Orleans lawyer Morris Bart for the support his staff offered in the research process.
How it works: A separate state law forces the end of a New Orleans ordinance banning permitless concealed carry Aug. 1.
- At that point, the other state law allowing it will go into effect.
- But exceptions include school zones, bars and restaurants serving alcohol, parades and permitted demonstrations, NOPD Chief Anne Kirkpatrick said.
The fine print: Like other school zones, the French Quarter school zone will extend 1,000 feet from the school at the 8th District NOPD station.
- That creates "a zone of protection" for about five blocks spanning from Canal Street to Toulouse, including some of the busiest blocks of Bourbon Street, Bart said Monday.
- NOPD officials aren't planning to create schools at other police districts, Kirkpatrick said.
Threat level: The new state law will still be effective for much of the city, and police are concerned about people storing firearms in their cars during trips to the French Quarter or other places with exceptions to the law.
- "If somebody really feels the need to bring a gun down here and they leave it in their car, they really should be getting a lock box," NOPD deputy superintendent Nicholas Gernon told WWL.
What's next: City officials are working to get the police station permitted as a school as quickly as possible, but there's no firm date yet for when it would go into effect.