The New Orleans’ Police Superintendent is playing political games to try to stop lawful citizens from carrying firearms in one popular tourist area, despite the fact that state lawmakers just passed a constitutional carry law this spring.
New Gov. Jeff Landry just signed the state’s “permitless” carry law into effect on March 5, rolling back the requirement for citizens to acquire a permit to carry a concealed firearm for self-defense. Now, however, Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick is playing fast and loose with the new law to try to keep people—except criminals, of course—from carrying a gun in the famed French Quarter.
According to an Associated Press report, on July 1, a police station in the French Quarter was designated a vocational technical school. Since state law forbids carrying a concealed weapon within 1,000 feet of a school, the move outlaws firearm possession in the immediate area, which includes a stretch of Bourbon Street.
It seems that Superintendent Kirkpatrick isn’t just intending to use the law as a prevention method to keep people from carrying in the area. According to the AP report, Kirkpatrick said that designating the 8th District station a school is just one way of giving police officers more leeway to stop and search people suspected of carrying a weapon in the Quarter.
Rather than admit that officials had found a way to skirt the intent of the constitutional carry law, District Attorney Jason Wilson preferred a more devious description of the move.
“I wouldn’t call it a work-around,” Williams told reporters during a recent press conference. “It’s using laws that have always been on the books to deal with a real and current threat to public safety.”
Among those opposing the school designation is State Attorney General Liz Murrill, who said city leaders overstepped their bounds in making the move.
“I’m working hard to help keep New Orleans safe, but the city cannot avoid state law by unilaterally designating police stations ‘vo-tech locations,’” Murrill said in a released statement. “That’s just not how our community college and vocational-technical system is set up. Among other implications, if it was one (it’s not) the police department would be under the jurisdiction of a board of supervisors for higher education, and it would be subject to other oversight requirements.”
Still, city leaders seemed pleased with themselves for coming up with such an ingenious idea to further infringe on the constitutional rights of lawful citizens.
“Ultimately what we realized was, ‘You know what? What we need is a school,’” City Council President Helena Moreno glibly told the AP.
