City finds loophole to create gun-free zone in French Quarter

Louisiana's new permitless concealed carry law takes effect on Thursday, but New Orleans officials have found workarounds to keep guns out of part of the French Quarter.

New Orelans officials failed to convince lawmakers to carve out the French Quarter as an exception to that law, so city leaders took matters into their own hands.

"The Eight District Station will soon fit the definition of a vocational technical school," New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said during a Monday news conference, citing Louisiana Revised Statutes.

Kirkpatrick points out this will make the area 1,000 feet around that police station a gun-free zone.

"When this goes into effect, 1,000 feet will cover parts of Bourbon Street and much of the upper quarter," Kirkpatrick said.

Specifically, the 1,000-foot buffer will include the first five blocks from Canal Street to Toulouse Street and the first five blocks of Bourbon, Royal, and Chartres Streets.

Kirkpatrick says the new training center at the Eighth District Station will provide the French Quarter a gun-free area and NOPD officers an opportunity to learn more about the new law they must enforce.

"We're going to have more regularly-scheduled training here as a satellite site," Kirkpatrick said. "That is our intention: to make it a regular training site as a substation to the police academy, which is over in the Third District.

"We are an agency that does do an focus on training," Kirkpatrick added. "We think a trained department is the best department in the country."

It's a move supported not only by the NOPD but also by members of the city council and District Attorney Jason Williams.

"Guns and alcohol don't mix; they never have," Williams said. "Guns and hot tempers don't mix; they never have. Guns and crowds don't mix; they never have."

Attorney Morris Bart assisted city officials in researching the state law to make the gun-free zone a reality. He says his recent work in the district attorney's office opened his eyes to the need for gun restrictions in New Orleans, especially in the French Quarter.

"It's never a good idea to bring a loaded gun into a crowd of drunks," Bart said.

Superintendent Kirkpatrick says the city will post signs around the French Quarter to warn people that they are entering a gun-free zone. Kirkpatrick also vowed to enforce the laws that prevent certain people from carry guns, including convicted felons, people who are negligently carrying guns, people possessing guns inside a bar or restaurant, or someone possessing a gun while drunk or high.

Kirkpatrick also notes that while the state's permitless concealed carry law goes into effect on Thursday, the city ordinance requiring a license to carry a concealed gun does not expire until August 1, making permitless concealed carry illegal in the city until then.