Open Carry in the French Quarter

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I am a resident of Indiana who will be visiting New Orleans in December. I would like to open carry while in the city for protection, considering that there are over 200 murders per year there. Does anyone know if the NOPD is understanding of the right to open carry? Also, does anyone have any personal experiences with Open Carry in New Orleans? Are there any places in the French Quarter where firearms are prohibited?

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It is legal to open carry. I would not do it in New Orleans. The NOPD is less than happy with civilians being armed. Most of them do not know the law. As far as prohibited places you can not open carry in any place that sells alcohol. The law that would concern open carry with alcohol is http://www.legis.state.la.us/lss/lss.asp?doc=78744

That is the possesion of a firearm law. The newer concealed carry laws sort of contradict this law but since you would OC it would not apply anyway.


The NOPD will stop and talk to you. They may even ask for a bill of sale or some other way to prove the gun is yours. While you do not need to have this under the law they don't seem to care. After they were told that they could not just take peoples guns they responded by saying that people would have to prove the weapon is theirs.
There is no gun registration in LA, and person to person sales require no paperwork. They are just looking for a way to take your weapon. They still have a big humid room with peoples weapons sitting and rusting away.

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Thank you for the reply. I would like to hear from anyone else who has experience with OC in New Orleans or St. Tammany Parrish. I am weighing the dangers of not carrying against the likelihood that I will be harrassed by the police to decide what to do. I am not going to any bars, just going to walk the quarter and see some of my favorite places. I would CC just to avoid the police but I am not sure if my permit will be recognized by the state. I have an Indiana Handgun permit, but it is a nonresident permit as I am from Kentucky. I am not so much worried about them stopping me and talking to me as I am that they might try to cite me or confiscate my weapon.

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check packing.org for state info and lsp.org concerning your permit. Louisiana accepts non-res permits and Louisiana does accept Indiana permits.

I live in st. tammany and have not open carried yet. The city police I have come accross have not seemed to know what is legal and what is not. The St. Tammany sheriff's dept was taking away guns during the storm and was named in the NRA SAF law suit. I do not know how they will react now. I posted asking for experiences and received no replies.

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mbf2k--I llive in St Tamanny and have had some interesting conversations with the local police and sheriff's office personnel concerning open carry.

None of them seem to know the law in the least.I still get the old "if it is partially concealed then it is concealed", you would be disturbing the peace, illegal carrying of a weapon etc.

None of these are correct and have not been for many years but the transfer of information in the legal arena is sluggish at best.

I was a reserve here for 16 years so still know many in the law enforcement community.But---most of them do not know the actual law and their respective agencies are in no hurry to inform them.

If you or anyone else on this forum would like to get together and chat concerning open carry or anything ----let me know and --- my treat for coffee!!

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Welcome! I live in a burb of New Orleans. EVERYPLACE in the French Quarter sells alcohol so I would highly recommend CC while in the French Quarter. packing.org is fairly current for Louisiana law, you could do it with a Florida non-res permit.

People are still getting harassed for OC, except in rural parishes, so if you want to roll the dice go for it! Other than that I think it will take a few years to set the boys in blue right about what the law actually says.

Again, Welcome and thanks for the visit, we need all the visitors we can get!

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mbf2k,

Packing.org certainly thinks LA will honor your IN permit:

http://www.packing.org/state/louisiana/#thisstatehonors

(Aside to the old-timers: what do I do to make a link? Using real HTML doesn't work, and for some reason none of the widgets seems to be for a plain a href link.)

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I would not OC in New Orleans. You never see anyone doing it, and to a cop, it would seem out of place. Cops will zero in on anything out of place. I would say that on average, whenever there's an event that draws a lot of tourism, (Mardi Gras, big conventions, bowl games, etc.) more tourist wind up being arrested for various things than are ever attacked such that carrying a firearm could prevent it. CC is the way to go in NOLA.



As a side note, if CC were completely unregulated ina big city (where OC is already legal), I have a feeling that OC would become a common sight, simply because it's sometimes difficult or uncomfortable to carry concealed.

I'd prefer it that way anyway. I'd rather carry a full size pistol than a compact, and the only advantage I can see to a compact is it's concealability, which is moot if you are OC anyway.