New Orleans D.A. on the Wrong Side of Concealed Carry Reform Efforts

As we covered yesterday, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry has several pro-Second Amendment bills waiting for his signature, including a couple of bills that would make it easier for non-residents to lawfully bear arms while visiting the state. 

One of those bills is SB 101, which specifies that, at least under state law, any person who has a valid concealed handgun permit issued pursuant to Louisiana statute, by a state that has reciprocity with Louisiana, or is carrying a handgun pursuant to Louisiana’s permitless carry statute, can carry within 1,000 feet of a school without committing a crime. While the legislation authored by state Sen. Blake Miguez can’t change the fact that the Gun-Free School Zone Act still requires someone to possess a carry permit issued by the state where the school zone is located in order to legally carry under federal law, SB 101 would at the very least prevent local authorities from targeting tourists exercising their Second Amendment rights. 

Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams is not a fan of the proposed change, and is pushing for Landry to veto the measure. 

“Gun-free zones just basically look to target law-abiding citizens and trip them up into some type of violation of the law so they can lose their Second Amendment rights,” Miguez said.

Williams, however, says such legislation poses a clear danger. 

“When more guns are added to the mix or gun laws are relaxed, more people die and more people get hurt,” Williams said.

The DA argues that blanket gun laws fail to account for local differences across Louisiana.

“Louisiana is absolutely the Sportsman’s Paradise, people want to hunt, they should be allowed to hunt,” Williams said. “Except, there is nothing to hunt on Bourbon Street and we gotta get our brains wrapped around that.”

And Williams needs to wrap his head around the fact that the Second Amendment is not about hunting. Sure, it’s a lawful activity that’s protected by the right to keep and bear arms, but the Supreme Court has said that individual self-defense is at the core of the right, and while New Orleans has seen great success in bringing its homicide rate down over the past year (with permitless carry in place, mind you), there are still predators in the French Quarter and other neighborhoods of the city who’ll pose a threat to innocent residents and visitors. 

Williams had previously worked with the New Orleans Police Department on a plan to convert the 8th District police station in the French Quarter into a vocational-technical school. The goal was to use the federal 1,000-foot school buffer zone to create a gun-free area in part of the Quarter. 

But the NOPD has since abandoned that idea, and Williams calls the decision disappointing.

“I don’t think it makes us safer, I think it makes us less safe,” Williams said. “Legislator Miguez, from what I understand, is a really good shot, but based upon my experience with the cases I’ve seen, there are a lot of people out here with guns who are not good shots.”

I’m glad to see the NOPD and city officials have officially scrapped the idea of labeling a police substation a “vo-tech” in order to create a carveout to the state’s permitless carry law. Even if they had moved forward with their plan it wouldn’t have created a true “gun-free zone”, but concealed carry licenses issued by the state of Louisiana would have been required for anyone daring to bear arms within 1,000 feet of the substation. 

Even if the city has abandoned that bad idea, Miguez’s bill should still be signed into law by Gov. Landry. There’s nothing stopping officials from reviving their plan in the future, but SB 101 would make those endeavors moot. 

Permitless carry hasn’t resulted in the apocalyptic nightmare predicted by the city’s mayor, police chief, and some city council members. In fact, right now New Orleans is the safest its been in decades. SB 101 simply offers additional protections for those visitors who want to enjoy all that the Crescent City has to offer while still exercising their right to armed self-defense, and Landry should ignore the objections of the D.A., who clearly has no idea what the Second Amendment is all about in the first place.