Constitutional—or, in today’s parlance, “permitless”—carry has taken the country by storm in recent years, with 29 states no longer requiring lawful gun owners to ask the government’s permission (and have to pay a fee, of course) in order to exercise their Second Amendment-protected right to bear arms in public for self-defense.
While this is good news, it is at the same time shameful that it takes legislation and governors’ signatures for law-abiding citizens to be able to do what the Founders meant when placing that guarantee front and center in the Bill of Rights.
Considering the pervasive gun-control mentality that has come to infect many big cities across the country, however, it is not surprising that some are engaged in sneaky maneuvers to undercut state constitutional-carry laws. Take “The Big Easy,” New Orleans, La.
Louisiana’s governor, Jeff Landry, signed the state’s constitutional-carry law into effect on March 5. Barely four months later, in July, the New Orleans police superintendent designated a police station in the French Quarter as a “school,” resulting in a 1,000-foot “gun-free” zone that banned carry in the immediate area, which just happened to include a stretch of popular Bourbon Street. Thankfully, this underhanded ploy was thwarted following a meeting the police chief had with Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill.
A similar situation popped up shortly afterward in Lafayette, La. The University of Louisiana Lafayette Science Museum in downtown Lafayette was designated as a “school” and carry was banned, despite Murrill declaring that the museum was not a school under state law. Regardless, the city’s mayor deferred to the University of Louisiana Lafayette’s declaration that the museum, owned by the City of Lafayette, is part of its campus and thus a firearm-free zone.
Louisiana State Sen. Blake Miguez, author of Louisiana’s constitutional-carry legislation, has publicly pushed back against this blatant civil-rights infringement and has requested that Murrill craft an official opinion on the definition of “school property.”
We’ll see what happens with that, but it is not only cities in Louisiana that are involved in sneaky schemes to curtail carry rights in jurisdictions that have passed constitutional- carry laws.
In September, Montgomery, Ala., Mayor Steven Reed signed a gun-control ordinance requiring a valid photo identification to carry a concealed firearm in a vehicle or on one’s person in the city. Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall quickly released a statement saying: “This egregious local gun control measure runs directly counter to the state’s firearm preemption statute and is an attempt at an end-around constitutional carry.”
Meanwhile, back in July, city leaders in Memphis, Tenn., approved several anti-gun measures to appear on the ballot—including one that would require a permit to carry in Memphis—in an attempt to amend the city charter. Despite the state election commission announcing it would not place the questions on the ballot because they violated several state laws, a judge ruled on September 11 that the gun-control questions could appear on the November ballot because they were just “proposals” and had not yet amended the city’s charter. So much for “the Rule of Law.”
Notably, Alabama, Louisiana and Tennessee all have strong firearms-preemption laws ensuring that municipalities cannot pass gun laws more restrictive than those passed by the state legislature—but that is exactly what all of these cities, under their liberal local leadership, are attempting to do.
We all are aware that some states and cities are blatantly anti-gun and proud of it, where political leaders are always looking for more ways to further infringe firearms ownership and use. Other jurisdictions, like those noted above, try to be a little sneakier. They’ll change a definition here or expand a definition there, trying to limit their citizens’ rights without drawing a lot of attention to what they’re doing.
Thankfully, the NRA Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA) works tirelessly to stay abreast of the gun-ban movement at all levels of government. But it is important to remind ourselves that all of us have a shared responsibility to protect our cherished right to keep and bear arms.
After all, it is not only presidents, senators, congressmen and federal judges who can limit or deprive us of those God-given rights; mayors and city council members in communities across the country have shown a willingness to do the very same thing. Vigilance of government officials at all levels is our best defense to retain our right to keep and bear arms for future generations.
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