Pacifist Firearms, LLC

I attended the signing of the Constitutional Carry legislation this morning. It was rewarding to see the fruits of our efforts over the years with the Louisiana Shooting Association, Inc.. But the icing on the cake was getting to meet Jerry Miculek, an absolute shooting legend and Louisiana native. I've learned a great deal about shooting over the years from watching Jerry's videos.

After several years of working on various iterations of this bill, I'm happy to say that Louisiana will now join the ranks as the 28th state with "Constitutional Carry." The bill is headed to the governor's desk, and he has stated that he will sign it. It should go into effect on July 4, 2024.

However, this news cannot be spread without the necessary public service announcements. I plan on doing several law seminars in the coming months on the ins-and-outs of constitutional carry, but here are the MOST important things everyone will have to know:

1. You will still need a permit if you wish to carry in many places.

Most significantly, constitutional carry will NOT allow you to carry in ANY place that serves alcohol for consumption on the premises (almost all restaurants for example).

Constitutional carry will also NOT allow you to carry within 1000 feet of a school. This is both a state and federal law that only has exceptions for permits. In urban areas, a great deal of the city falls within these 1000 foot zones.

2. You will still have important duties that are otherwise required of permit holders if you are carrying with no permit.

Most importantly, you will need to inform any officer that approaches you in an official capacity that you are carrying a concealed handgun.

Second, you cannot be over 0.05 BAC.

Finally, you are subject to all the same prohibited locations as permit holders (plus the additional ones listed above). This includes requiring permission from any person before carrying a firearm concealed into their private residence.

There are other things of course, but these are what will be the most significant things to know. If you plan on carrying with no permit pursuant to the new law when it goes into effect, please be SURE that you do the necessary research on the law. Further, even though training is not required, more training is ALWAYS a good idea.

Bill Allowing Permitless Concealed Carry in Louisiana Heads to the Governor's Desk for Signature A bill allowing Louisiana residents, 18 and older, to carry a concealed handgun without a permit received final approval from lawmakers Wednesday

Self Defense and the Legal System Get clear information regarding your rights from an attorney experienced in self-defense.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2021/05/03/black-gun-owners-postive-images/?fbclid=IwAR0TEoFAApvzP5p3P-pk2LKPDvPdApunLL1coEu2nq9W_JmDyQiZfvHqfiE

Black gun owners are often portrayed negatively. One photographer set out to change that. “We as African Americans have been deprived of so many rights, so why not take advantage of the ones we have?”

I extracted the floor debate on HB596 from the video of yesterday's proceedings:

Louisiana House Bill 596 (Constitutional Carry) Floor Debate, 5/5/21 An excerpt from the Louisiana House of Representatives Day 15 Proceedings, (5/5/2021), showing the floor debate on Representative Fontenot's Constitutional C...

If anything good has come out of the last year, it has been the progress in bridging of the racial divide in our country on many issues, gun rights included.

Even so, I'm dismayed (though unsurprised) to see the reports in this article of cold or unwelcoming treatment of these new gun owners by the shops they were patronizing.

PaciFIST Fi****ms and my good friends at FRC Range remain absolutely committed to providing quality training in a comfortable, attentive, welcoming, and personalized manner to both new and seasoned gun owners, regardless of their race, gender, sexual orientation, or political views.

Black Americans flock to gun stores and clubs: 'I needed to protect myself' Americans bought a record number of fi****ms last year. Gun ownership among Black Americans is up 58.2%

I start with this provocative image because, much like a poorly designed gun, a poorly designed piece of legislation could get you all jammed up.

Constitutional Carry is back on the docket, again, for the 2021 regular session of the Louisiana State Legislature. Again introduced by District 1 State Rep. Danny McCormick of Bossier and Caddo Parishes, this time as HB16. The bill is essentially the same as the one that has failed several times before.

First, I would of course like to commend Representative McCormick and the other sponsors of this bill for their support and enthusiasm for the lawful carrying of defensive weapons. But as I’ve seen the news of this bill pop up again this year, I’ve again seen the same confusion and misinformation flying around, not only from the news media, but in concealed carry circles as well. I hope to set straight the debate and ease the collective head-scratching before the accumulated dandruff shed from it all blinds everyone to what is actually going on.

The most important thing to know about this bill, and the same problems it has had every time before, is that it really doesn’t do much at all, at least not for anyone who is serious about concealed carry. Yes, it gets rid of the requirements for a permit to carry a concealed weapon, but that doesn’t mean you can do everything you can currently do with a permit. All it does is treat permitless carry the same as open carry is currently treated. Legal, yes, but fraught with peril for the uninitiated. As a result, anyone who is really going to carry a gun with any regularity will still need to get the permit, and the existence of permits is (fortunately), still preserved by this bill.

If this bill were to pass, permitless carry would have these same major problems that open carry currently has:

1. You cannot carry in ANY place that sells ANY alcohol for consumption on the premises. See LA R.S. 41:95.5. In this state, that’s pretty much everywhere that serves food short of fast-food restaurants. The only exceptions in 95.5 are for concealed carry permits issued pursuant to the CHP statute (LA R.S. 40:1379.3), and nothing in the Constitutional Carry bill would change that with respect to permitless carry.

2. You cannot carry within 1000 feet of a school, and a violation of this is a FELONY. See LA R.S. 14:95.2. Again, there is an exception to the prohibition of guns within 1000 feet of a school for permits, but there would not be one for permitless carry. As a matter of practicality, no one knows with certainty where these 1000 zones all begin and end, and I see this as a pretty dangerous trap, especially in municipalities hostile to concealed carry.

3. You would have no concealed carry reciprocity with other states, unless of course you were in another constitutional carry state. And some other constitutional carry states don’t let non-residents carry without a permit.

I’m sure there are some more problems that I’m just not even thinking about right now, but these three should be enough to show that these perennial constitutional carry bills are more symbolic than useful. Constitutional Carry might prove useful for the casual carrier, someone who isn’t interested in carrying on a regular basis and might just want to pocket a pistol only in times of particular concern. However, anyone who is serious about carry won’t notice any difference and will still need a permit. Another major concern that I have for this hypothetical future is that the permitting scheme could be legislated away “because we don’t need it anymore,” while the above-listed problems with permitless carry still exist.

On the flip side, there really isn’t any need for alarm among the anti-gun community, either. Again, this bill doesn’t really do much. No one can carry in places they couldn’t carry before. No one can carry a gun who wasn’t allowed to carry a gun before. It just allows people who currently can (and probably already do) open carry to put their jacket on, as Representative McCormick’s video proclaimed: Constitutional Carry defends your right to wear a jacket without a permit. I would hope that even some on the left might find a silver lining on a bill like this – illegal carrying of weapons is one more crime that, by itself, is victimless and disproportionately affects minority communities, further contributing to our mass incarceration problem. If this bill were to pass, the biggest effect it would likely have is a reduction in the “crime” of “carrying while black.”

I hope this helps to frame the debate and what it is really about, and to both temper the expectations and ease the fears of the pro- and anti-carry crowds, respectively. And if nothing else, if this bill DOES pass, I hope my explanations can keep some people out of trouble they didn’t otherwise expect.

I will still support this bill, as I did last time. However, I would prefer bills to make changes to the concealed carry climate in this state that would be more helpful to those WITH permits, and I am never a huge fan of throwing the same bill before the legislature every year after repeated failures. I know this is a sentiment that is shared by other pro-gun legislators, and I agree that it would be better to devote our efforts to well-crafted bills calculated to have a chance of passing over symbolic measures that will only make our political opponents ever more numb to our pleas.

As always, piece be with you.

There seems to be a lot of confusion out there on what the different grain weights of ammunition refer to. If you think it indicates the power of the cartridge, you're one of the many perpetuating the myth. See my article link in the comments to learn the answer!

Due to the uncertainty about the coronavirus and quarantine, there have been many people becoming first-time gun owners. The firearm training community has, as usual, been doing their best to help out. My good friends at FRC Range are having a free new gun owner orientation program tomorrow, despite otherwise being closed by order of the Governor. https://www.facebook.com/events/596088270979735/?active_tab=discussion

To help do my part, I want to let everyone know that I will be available to answer any questions that any new (or just less experienced) gun owners may have. This information will, of course, be free of charge. I will try to answer as many questions as I can, with as much detail as I can, in the order the questions are received. Please send any questions by email to everett@pacifist-fi****ms.com.

Be safe out there, and be responsible. We have enough to worry about with the pandemic.

As always, piece be with you.