New Orleans Leaders Increase Pressure on Legislature to Carve Out Gun-Free Zone

New Orleans, LA (KPEL News) - New Orleans Police have vowed to find the person responsible for killing one woman and injuring 11 others in a shooting outside a nightclub in the city's warehouse district. Shots rang out around midnight at a nightclub called Republic, sending patrons and people nearby running from the area. NOLA officials held a press conference Monday afternoon to provide updates, and superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said no arrests have been made. Significant rewards are being offered for information that leads to an arrest.

At the end of Monday's press conference, a reporter asked a question referencing the recently-signed Louisiana law allowing permit-less concealed carry, also referred to as constitutional carry, and whether officials were concerned that it would affect gun violence in the city. A bill has since been introduced in the Louisiana regular legislative session that would carve out the New Orleans French Quarter and designate as a gun-free zone. City leaders are now increasing pressure on the legislature to pass the measure.

Louisiana's constitutional carry bill was signed into law following a special legislative session on crime in March 2024. Democrats, especially the New Orleans-area delegation, opposed the measure over concerns about what it would mean for the French Quarter and controlling violence in the district.

READ MORE: Mass Shooting in New Orleans Kills One, Injures 11

Congressman Troy Carter, a Democrat who represents Louisiana's 2nd Congressional District in Washington, posted on Twitter Monday morning.

New Orleans leaders and legislators are hoping the bill by Democrat State Representative Alonzo Knox gets traction. The proposal adds "a major entertainment district" to the list of firearm-free zones, and defines it as:

... the public spaces within an area that traditionally hosts more than fifteen million people annually, contains a venue for sports and entertainment with a capacity for more than seventy-five thousand people, a convention center with more than one million square feet of exhibition space, and has one land-based casino. This shall include the area of the city of New Orleans containing the boundaries of the French Quarter as provided in R.S. 25:799(B), the Downtown Development District as provided in R.S. 33:2740.3(A), and the New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center as provided in R.S. 33:130.862(A).

Superintendent Kirkpatrick said at the press conference that she would like to see the entire city of New Orleans designated as a firearms-free zone. She expressed a desire to have a larger area that she called "the hospitality district" included in the legislation. It would include the vicinities immediately surrounding the French Quarter, like the Warehouse District where Monday's shooting took place. She specifically mentioned Carrolton to the River and the area around the Caesar's Superdome.

Representative Knox's bill is currently awaiting consideration by the Committee on Administration of Criminal Justice.