New Orleans police have long focused their hunt for guns on the city’s historic core, where arrests for weapons crimes are significantly down since the law took effect on Aug. 1, data show.

At the same time, violent crime across the city had fallen for more than a year before gunfire marred a crowded second line last month in St. Roch, leaving two dead and 10 wounded over two incidents. More bloodshed would follow, with one killed and three shot on Iberville Street in the French Quarter on Nov. 21. Four more were struck with bullets on Dec. 1 on Canal Street. 

Violence is still falling in New Orleans despite these recent shootings. The NOPD's data shows a 40.4% decrease in homicides compared to the same time period in 2023, and a 54.7% decline over the past two years. Non-fatal shootings are down as well. There've been 208 reported shootings so far this year compared to 348 in 2023, a drop of 40.2%. 

This is good news, not cause for alarm, but Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick is once again claiming that Louisiana's Constitutional Carry law, which took effect on August 1 in New Orleans (and July 4 across the rest of the state) is making the city a more dangerous place. 

“Officers used to be able to do a stop-and-check on a person if they could see they were carrying a weapon. ... That changed,” Kirkpatrick said. "I understand constitutional carry and why that may be OK in some parts of Louisiana. But we are not all the same."

The NOPD said it's retrained about 500 officers — more than half the sworn force — on the new law and its impacts, though a spokesperson declined to discuss changes in strategy with gun arrests.

The numbers show steep declines in those arrests. The NOPD has reported 404 arrests citywide this year for charges of illegal carrying of a weapon or illegal carrying of a concealed firearm. The lion's share came from January to July, with around 46 firearm arrests per month. Since then, it's been fewer than 20.

“You can see the drop-off,” said Rafael Goyeneche, president of the watchdog Metropolitan Crime Commission. “It’s limiting their ability to do proactive law enforcement.”

Goyeneche favors a carveout from concealed carry laws for the French Quarter, an idea that failed to gain traction this year in the legislature.

He pointed to the more than 430 law enforcement officers on the street when shooting broke out last weekend on Canal Street and the French Quarter. Officers "had to wait until someone took out a gun and started firing,” Goyeneche said.

What Kirkpatrick and Goyeneche don't mention is that, even when permits were required to lawfully carry in Louisiana, the mere presence of a gun wasn't probable cause for police to stop and question the carrier. In that respect, nothing changed once the Constitutional Carry law took effect several months ago. 

The real issue here isn't the state's permitless carry law, it's the dysfunctional criminal justice system in New Orleans and other cities. One of the men charged in that second line shooting last week was well known to police, and would have been in prison if not for the largesse of a local judge. 

19-year-old Curtis Gray is accused of using his mother's gun to carry out the murders of 21-year-old Rasean Carter and 19-year-old Malachi Jackson. As Fox 8 in New Orleans reports, Gray pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery in February, but his 10-year sentence was suspended by Judge Shayna Beevers Morant, who instead placed him on active probation for just three years.

If violent offenders are getting the message that they can commit crimes without consequence, we're going to see more of the same. The answer isn't to crack down on lawful gun owners or to implement an indefensible policy carving out the French Quarter from the state's permitless carry law. Kirkpatrick should be raising holy hell about the slaps on the wrist that the local court system is handing out to guys like Gray, but instead she's intent on using the actions of violent criminals to criminalize our right to bear arms in self-defense.