Look, I run a gun shop and I've seen a lot of backwards gun laws, but this one takes the cake. Louisiana supposedly passed constitutional carry, meaning you don't need a permit to carry a handgun. Pretty great, right? Except if you're between 18 and 20 years old — then the state basically sets you up to fail.
Here's the deal: Louisiana won't issue concealed carry permits to 18-to-20-year-olds. But here's the kicker — both federal and state law create these massive "invisible gun-free zones" within 1,000 feet of schools. The only way to be exempt from those restrictions? You guessed it — a concealed carry permit. With over 1,300 schools in Louisiana, you've basically got a maze of off-limits areas where a young adult can't legally carry, even though they're allowed to own the gun in the first place.
But it gets worse. Louisiana provides civil immunity for self-defense to licensed carriers. You know, the protection that says if you legitimately defend yourself, you can't be sued? Yeah, 18-to-20-year-olds carrying under constitutional carry don't get that protection. They're left high and dry if some criminal decides to sue them after being legitimately defended against.
The Firearms Policy Coalition just filed a lawsuit challenging this nonsense, and they're using the Fifth Circuit's Reese v. ATF decision, which already ruled that 18-to-20-year-olds are part of "the People" protected by the Second Amendment. The Fifth Circuit struck down the federal ban on handgun sales to young adults. Now Louisiana is trying to pull this permit trick to effectively ban carry for the same group?
This isn't constitutional carry — it's constitutional fraud. Louisiana wants to claim they support the Second Amendment while quietly trapping young adults in a legal nightmare. The state needs to either issue these permits or get rid of the age restriction entirely. You can't call yourself a constitutional carry state while actively denying rights to legal adults.
The courts have been pretty clear lately: age-based restrictions on young adults don't hold up. I expect this case to go the same way.