Louisiana's Constitutional Carry law has been in effect since July 4th, and despite the claims of anti-gunners that the new statute would lead to anarchy and a rise in violent crime the new law hasn't caused any issues. The biggest problems have come from jurisdictions that are trying to circumvent the new law, which have led to a lot of confusion about where unlicensed carry can take place. 

In Lafayette, for instance, the city and the University of Louisiana-Lafayette originally declared that the Lafayette Science Museum, which is located downtown and run by the university, was an "educational facility". That meant that not only was the museum off-limits to permitless carry, but there was a 1,000 foot buffer zone around the museum where permitless carry wasn't permitted either. Because of the museum's location, that meant much of downtown Lafayette would have been excluded from the permitless carry law. 

The city reversed course a few days after making that original determination, but backtracked again last week and re-imposed the permitless carry ban. But after Gun Owners of America threatened to sue the university if it did not change its designation of the museum as an educational facility, ULL has now decided to back down from its permitless carry ban. 

Louisiana law, R.S. 14:95.6, requires universities to post signs identifying firearm-free zones at university campus entrances.  The state law is ambiguous in defining what constitutes a “campus,” so the University of Louisiana at Lafayette looked to the federal Clery Act, that governs campus crime reporting, for a definition. The Clery Act definition of campus expressly includes property owned or controlled by the university, which led to the posting of the “Safe School Zone” signs.

The University sought additional clarifications from the Acadiana legislative delegation and their legal staff. This led to the determination that under state law, the definition of campus may not extend to property that the University does not own.  Accordingly, the University has removed the “Safe School Zone” signs erected at the Science Museum and at the hotels being used as temporary student housing, because they are not owned by the University. 

The University works to avoid infringing on any constitutional rights while also ensuring the safety and welfare of our students. Therefore, as authorized by state law, the University has replaced “Safe School Zone” signs with “Weapons-Free Facility” signage that precludes firearms within these facilities but does not establish any zones outside them.

As the university said in its statement, the language in state law is pretty ambiguous about the definition of a "campus", so there's still arguably the need for some clean-up by the state legislature. New Orleans Police, for instance, have said that they'll allow a local vo-tech to offer some classes at the department's French Quarter substation, claiming that would suffice to treat the building as a "campus" and make most of the French Quarter off-limits to permitless carry. Based on ULL's latest interpretation of state statue, however, NOPD's move is a big NOPE, given that the vo-tech doesn't own the substation. 

As I wrote a week ago, lawmakers in Baton Rouge could clear up the confusion pretty easily. 

 There doesn't need to be a dramatic change made to state law. A simple amendment to §95.2. C(9) is all that it would take. The law currently says that "Any person who has a valid concealed handgun permit issued pursuant to R.S. 40:1379.1 or 1379.3 and who carries a concealed handgun within one thousand feet of any school campus" is exempt from the prohibition. Legislators just need to insert "and those who lawfully possess a handgun under §1379.3 B(2)(A)" in the existing statute and the problem would be cleared up.

Given the ambiguous definition of "campus" in state law, that still seems like the simplest way to resolve the issue while protecting the Second Amendment rights of Louisianans. While the University of Louisiana-Lafayette has (for the moment anyway) interpreted the statute favorably for gun owners, there's no guarantee that every jurisdiction in the state will follow suit... even with the threat of legal action from groups like GOA.