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NEW ORLEANS — A police station in New Orleans’ French Quarter will be designated as a vocational technical school, leading to an immediate ban on gun ownership in the surrounding area — including a stretch of bar-lined Bourbon Street — as a new Louisiana law takes effect that eliminates the need for a permit to carry a concealed gun.
Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick announced the move during a news conference Monday at the 8th District Police Station on Royal Street in the Quarter.
Kirkpatrick said state law prohibits carrying concealed weapons within 1,000 feet of such a facility. That radius from the station would cover a large portion of the Quarter, including several blocks of Bourbon Street.
Kirkpatrick said the station also has a classroom and is used for training. He described the station as a “satellite” of the city’s police academy.
“I wouldn’t call this a stopgap measure,” District Attorney Jason Williams told reporters gathered in the lobby of the two-story 19th-century building. “This is using laws that have always been in the law to deal with a real and present threat to public safety.”
Kirkpatrick said declaring the 8th District station a school is a way to give police officers more leeway to stop and frisk people suspected of illegally possessing weapons in the quarters.
He also listed other aspects of state law that could allow the arrest of a person carrying a weapon in the tourist district. These include a ban on carrying a gun in a bar or by anyone with a .05% blood-alcohol level. That’s less than the .08% considered evidence of intoxication in drunken-driving cases.
State lawmakers passed legislation earlier this year to make Louisiana one of the latest states to eliminate the permit requirement for carrying a concealed gun. Previous attempts to do so were vetoed by former Democratic Governor John Bel Edwards. But new Republican Governor Jeff Landry supported and signed the new law.
According to the National Council of State Legislatures, 28 other states have similar laws.
Lawmakers rejected repeated calls from police and city officials to exempt New Orleans entirely or to single out the French Quarter and other areas known for alcohol-fueled revelry. City Council Speaker Helena Moreno said their refusal prompted city officials to look for ways to deal with the potential proliferation of guns in high-traffic areas.
“We finally realized, ‘You know what? We need a school,'” Moreno said.
Although the law goes into effect statewide on Thursday, it won’t be enforced in New Orleans until Aug. 1, when the current city firearms ordinance expires, Kirkpatrick said.
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