Yes, the Second Amendment and the Super Bowl Can Co-Exist

This year’s Super Bowl festivities will be centered around the French Quarter and downtown business district in New Orleans, and despite attempts by city officials and the New Orleans Police Department to turn much of the area into a “gun-free zone”, the right to carry will remain in effect and in force throughout the week.

There will still be heightened security measures, including bag checks and magnetometers, and lawfully carrying is still likely to be a hassle, but it won’t be illegal. 

Security precautions include bag searches for illegal items such as explosives, but under state law, adults 18 and older without a criminal record can legally carry a concealed firearm without a permit.

“Legally possessed firearms will not be restricted in the security zone,” Louisiana State Police Sgt. Kate Stegall told NOLA.com. 

However, firearms will still be prohibited in bars, casinos, government buildings, and along parade routes. They are also banned inside the Caesars Superdome and within the NFL’s designated security perimeter. 

City leaders have repeatedly pushed for restrictions on firearms in the French Quarter, arguing that dense crowds and alcohol consumption make the area especially risky for permitless carry. However, efforts to carve out a firearm restriction have been unsuccessful in the state legislature.

“You can’t bring your cooler, but you can definitely bring your Glock,” Arthur Hunter, a former judge and New Orleans police officer, jokingly told NOLA.com.

You can also bring a megaphone and pamphlets if you want to exercise your First Amendment rights in the French Quarter this week. The Quarter may be crowded, but that alone isn’t reason to deny residents and visitors their right to carry, no matter how hard the city has tried to curtail the practice. 

Back in July, the city began working to designate the New Orleans Police Department’s 8th District station as a vocational school, which would extend a 1,000-foot firearm restriction around the building. 

“We were not just going to sit back and say, ‘Oh, well,’” City Council President Helena Moreno said in a press conference, according to Axios.

That designation would create a “zone of protection” spanning about five blocks, from Canal Street to Toulouse Street, covering some of the most heavily trafficked areas of Bourbon Street, attorney Morris Bart told reporters.

Despite that high-profile attempt to designate the police station as a vo-tech, the city has yet to actually put that plan into practice. In September of last year an NOPD official claimed “the plan and process are still moving forward,” but officials appear to have run into legal and practical issues that have stymied their efforts. 

The NOPD is “in discussions with several area institutions to both expand current partnerships and to create new ones,” the statement went on. Officials declined to specify any partners for the police station plan, however.  

Locally, the city has applied for an occupational license to establish “a vocational school focused on teaching industrial public safety and managerial skills as a commercial enterprise” at the 8th District station. The city has proposed “a publicly owned but privately operated training facility,” in an application that remained last week under city review, records show.

But administrators with the Louisiana Board of Regents and the Louisiana Community and Technical College System board, which oversee adult schools in the state, say the city hasn’t approached them for any approvals.

Even if the city had been able to implement their plan, it wouldn’t have created a true “gun-free zone” in the French Quarter. Gun owners with valid concealed carry licenses would still be able to bear arms within that “zone of protection”, but permitless carry wouldn’t be permitted. 

Of course, that’s a moot point for the moment, given the inability of the NOPD to turn its substation into an educational facility. Bear in mind, though, if you’re planning on traveling to New Orleans for the big game this weekend that many private businesses in the Quarter have banned concealed carry on their premises, and it’s still against the law to carry a firearm while under the influence. If you’re planning on partying, leave the gun behind or have a designated carrier who stays sober.