Analyst: City's attempt to make French Quarter gun-free zone may not be legal

The City of New Orleans says part of the French Quarter will soon be a gun-free zone because it's designating the Eighth District Police Station as a vocational training school. Meanwhile, Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill says the city has no authority to create such a school, and, as a result, the French Quarter gun-free zone is illegal.

Legally, who's right? According WWL All Things Legal host Doug Sunseri, Murrill may win this battle.

"I'd have to side with Attorney General Murrill because there is no law that provides that that area is a gun-free zone," Sunseri said. "What the mayor and the city are trying to do is they're trying to call a dog a cat. Calling a dog a cat doesn't make it a cat. What they're trying to do is that the Eight District Police Station is a vocational tech school. Therefore, they're under the supervision and jurisdiction of the Board of Supervisors that determines vocational schools are gun-free zones."

Sunseri says Murrill is arguing that the city cannot declare by fiat that the police station is a vocational school. According to Sunseri, the lawyers who helped devise this plan know in their hearts that this will not pass muster in court.

"I think if you put some truth serum in the lawyers who are trying to pull this off, they're trying to do this for political purposes," Sunseri said. "If you ask them and put some truth serum in them, they'd say we really can't do that. What they're trying to do is find a loophole around the legislature and trying to circumvent that particular law, and they're looking for any kind of loophole to get around it. I think they know deep in their legal consciousness that this is not a legal argument."

According to Sunseri, this effort, despite being legally questionable, presents the best opportunity for the city to get around the state's new permitless concealed carry law. However, Sunseri says this will make the political effort to exempt parts or all of New Orleans from the permitless concealed carry law more difficult in the future. That's because the city is thumbing its nose at Governor Jeff Landry and the legislature.

"They're trying to rule by fiat or administrative decree, saying our administrative decree is superior to the lawmaking of the legislature and the signature of the governor," Sunseri said. "Basically, what they're trying to do is overturn the will of the legislature by administrative fiat."