In the eleven months that permitless carry's been on the books in Louisiana, we've seen a terror attack in the French Quarter, where the perpetrator killed 15 people by running them down with a truck (five others were shot by the assailant before he was killed by police). The Crescent City still has its fair share of more garden-variety crimes, but according to the city's police department the number of arrests on gun charges has declined dramatically.

The datasheet indicates a marked decline, with the NOPD having made 130 arrests for illegal possession of a firearm this year, down by 51 percent from the 266 arrests recorded during the same timeframe in 2024.

This drop can possibly signal either a reduction in gun-related offenses or changes in enforcement policies, but analysis is ongoing.

The NOPD’s ongoing efforts to tackle illegal firearms in the community are reflected in these preliminary figures.

In addition to the arrests, firearm confiscations by NOPD show a similar downward trend. The report specifies that as of May 27, 768 firearms have been seized in criminal investigations in 2025. That marks a 28-percent decrease from 1,071 firearms seized by this point last year. These numbers suggest a decrease in the flow or discovery of illegal guns, yet the root causes behind these changes have yet to be fully understood.

While gun control activists will want to point to the decrease in arrests for illegal gun possession as proof that permitless carry is allowing criminals to walk around armed to the teeth, the fact that the number of firearms confiscated as part of a criminal investigation has also plunged is evidence that violent crime itself has declined in the city since permitless carry took place. 

That's borne out through statistics from criminologist Jeff Asher's "Real Time Crime Index", which shows homicides in New Orleans have declined to six-year lows, while aggravated assaults are at the lowest record levels in at least eight years. 

This continues a trend that started last year, even as permitless carry was taking effect. 

There was an overall decrease of 26 percent in crime throughout the city in 2024, compared to the same statistics of 2023. More specifically, there was a 20-percent decrease in person crimes and a 27-percent decrease in property crimes. Among persons crimes, there was a 35-percent decrease in homicides, a 44-percent decrease in nonfatal shootings, a 38-percent decrease in armed robbery and a 49-percent decrease in carjackings.

In a comparison of five-year averages, 2024 saw an overall 23-percent decrease in crime throughout the city. More specifically, there was a 29-percent decrease in persons crimes and a 22-percent decrease in property crimes. Please note that in this comparison, special categories are compared to three-year averages. This comparison showed a 66-percent decrease in carjackings and a 53-percent decrease in nonfatal shootings.

In comparison to 2019, the department’s most recent historic low point in crime statistics, 2024 saw a 29-percent decrease in crime throughout the city. This includes a 14-percent decrease in person crimes and a 32-percent decrease in property crimes.

Now, I'm not suggesting that permitless carry is solely responsible for the steep decine in violent crime in New Orleans, but it certainly didn't lead to a crime spike like Democrats predicted. In fact, as Nola.com reported last month, the city is on pace to have the fewest murders this year in recorded history. 

If permitless carry was the problem anti-gunners claim it to be, we would have seen some evidence of that in New Orleans over the past year. There's been no rise, however, in the number of drunk tourists carrying a concealed firearm as they suck down hurricanes while stumbling down Bourbon Street. We've seen no increase in legal gun owners engaging in violent assaults during Mardi Gras or Super Bowl weekend. Permitless carry has been a non-issue at the very least, and may well be playing some role in keeping the city's criminal element in check.