Louisiana Gun Laws: Permitless Carry, Restrictions, and Penalties

Louisiana gun laws let any adult 18 or older who is not legally barred from having a firearm carry a concealed handgun in most public places without a permit, a rule that took effect on July 4, 2024. The state still issues concealed handgun permits for people who want to carry legally in other states, still keeps meaningful categories of people from owning guns at all, and still bans firearms from a long list of locations. Breaking any of those rules carries real penalties, and permitless carry has not softened them.

Permitless Carry

If you are 18 or older and legally allowed to possess a firearm under both state and federal law, you can carry a concealed handgun in Louisiana without applying for anything or taking a class.¹ You are disqualified if you are prohibited from purchasing or possessing a firearm under state or federal law, or if you are subject to a court order barring you from carrying. A 2025 amendment tightened these restrictions to close gaps in the original law.²

One rule catches people who otherwise follow the law. Whether you carry with a permit or without one, you must tell any law enforcement officer who approaches you in an official capacity that you have a weapon on you. You must also submit to a pat-down and let the officer temporarily disarm you during the encounter.³ Ignoring that requirement can lead to permit revocation for permit holders and criminal exposure for everyone else. It is the rule most likely to create a problem during a routine traffic stop.

Where You Cannot Carry

Louisiana bans firearms in a long list of locations, and carrying in a prohibited place can turn a law-abiding gun owner into a criminal defendant. That list matters more now than it did when permits were required, because permit training used to walk people through it.

School campuses, any area within 1,000 feet of a school campus, and inside any school bus.⁴
The state capitol, courthouses, law enforcement stations, and meeting places of local governing authorities.
Prisons, jails, and juvenile detention centers.
Any portion of a business with a permit to sell alcohol for on-premises consumption. Owners, lessees, and employees are excepted, and permit holders may carry in a restaurant holding a Class A-Restaurant permit.⁵
Churches, synagogues, mosques, and similar places, unless the entity that owns or controls the building authorizes concealed carry.
Polling places, except for a peace officer on duty.
The secured areas of airports. You may bring an encased, unloaded firearm into the terminal to check it as luggage.
Someone else’s private residence, without that person’s consent.

The school zone rule is broader than most people expect. It reaches 1,000 feet in every direction from the campus boundary, which in many neighborhoods covers surrounding streets and homes.⁴ Firearms kept inside a motor vehicle and law enforcement officers are excepted, but walking through a school zone armed can be prosecuted even if you had no idea a school was nearby.

Who Cannot Have a Gun at All

Some categories of people are prohibited from possessing firearms regardless of permitless carry or permit status.

Convicted Felons

Anyone convicted of a crime of violence or certain other felonies is barred from possessing a firearm or carrying a concealed weapon. The penalties are severe: five to twenty years at hard labor, a fine of $1,000 to $5,000, and no eligibility for probation, parole, or suspended sentence.⁶ Even attempted possession carries one to seven and a half years at hard labor.

Firearm rights can be restored through a gubernatorial pardon that specifically includes restoration of firearm rights. The process requires completing all sentences and supervision, paying all court costs and victim restitution, and not having applied for a pardon within the past two years. The governor can only pardon Louisiana convictions, not federal offenses or convictions from other states.

Domestic Violence Convictions

Louisiana specifically prohibits firearm possession by anyone convicted of domestic abuse battery, a second or subsequent offense of battery of a dating partner, or dating partner battery involving strangulation or burning.⁷ The prohibition ends ten years after completion of the sentence, probation, or parole, provided no additional qualifying convictions occur during that period. A pardon or expungement also lifts the prohibition unless it expressly says the person still cannot possess firearms.

Juveniles

Anyone under 18 is generally prohibited from possessing a handgun. Exceptions apply for supervised activities such as hunting with a valid license and target shooting at an established range.⁸

Mental Health and Protective Orders

Federal law prohibits firearm possession by anyone involuntarily committed to a mental institution or adjudicated as mentally defective, and Louisiana enforces that prohibition. People subject to active protective or restraining orders are also barred from possessing firearms under state and federal law. Louisiana has not enacted a red flag or extreme risk protection order law, so no mechanism currently exists for a family member or law enforcement officer to petition a court to temporarily remove someone’s firearms based on a perceived threat.

Buying a Firearm

A purchase from a licensed dealer works the same in Louisiana as it does nationally: the dealer runs a federal background check through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System before completing the sale. Louisiana adds no state waiting period, purchase permit, or registration.

Private sales between individuals who are not licensed dealers do not require a background check under Louisiana law. Federal law only mandates background checks through federally licensed dealers, so a private seller can legally transfer a firearm to another person without one. It is still a federal crime to sell a firearm to someone you know or reasonably should know is prohibited from possessing one. If you want extra assurance on a private purchase, you can run the transaction through a licensed dealer for a transfer fee, typically $25 to $50.

Getting a Permit Anyway

Permitless carry covers Louisiana only. A Louisiana concealed handgun permit gives you legal recognition in roughly three dozen reciprocal states, including Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Texas, and most of the South and Mountain West.⁹ Without a permit, you are subject to whatever laws the destination state imposes on unpermitted carriers, which in many states means you cannot carry concealed at all. A permit also lets you carry in a restaurant holding a Class A-Restaurant alcohol permit.

Eligibility

Louisiana runs a shall-issue system: the Department of Public Safety and Corrections must issue the permit to anyone who meets the statutory qualifications. You must be at least 21 years old, legally domiciled in Louisiana, and able to pass a background check that includes fingerprinting and criminal history review.³ You also need to complete a firearms training course within the 12 months before applying, covering handgun handling, use-of-force law, and live-fire proficiency. NRA handgun safety courses taught by a certified instructor qualify, as do other state-approved programs.¹⁰

Disqualifying factors include felony convictions, certain misdemeanor convictions, active restraining or protective orders, a history of substance abuse, and involuntary commitment to a mental health facility.

Fees and Renewal

A standard five-year permit costs $125. A lifetime permit costs $500 for applicants ages 21 to 64 and $250 for those 65 or older. Active-duty military members pay half the standard rate, and veterans with an honorable discharge are exempt from all permit fees. Applicants 65 and older pay half the standard fee on a five-year permit, bringing it to $62.50.¹¹ If you have not continuously lived in Louisiana for the 15 years before your application date, you pay an additional $50 non-refundable fee on your first application.

Five-year permits require renewal with another background check and refresher training. Lifetime permit holders skip renewal paperwork but must submit proof of completing educational training every five years, including a live-fire qualification. Failing to submit proof suspends the lifetime permit until you comply.¹⁰

Self-Defense: Stand Your Ground and Castle Doctrine

Louisiana gives broad legal protection to people who use force, including deadly force, in self-defense. If you are in a place where you have a right to be and you are not engaged in unlawful activity, you have no duty to retreat and can meet force with force. A jury is not even allowed to consider whether you could have retreated when deciding if your use of force was justified.¹²

The protection is strongest inside your home, workplace, or vehicle. Louisiana law creates a legal presumption that you reasonably believed deadly force was necessary if someone was unlawfully and forcibly entering your dwelling, place of business, or motor vehicle, or had already made such an entry. That presumption shifts the burden: the prosecution has to prove your belief was unreasonable rather than you having to prove it was reasonable.¹³ The presumption applies when the intruder was unlawfully and forcibly entering or had already entered, and you knew or had reason to believe that was happening. It does not protect anyone who was involved in drug trafficking at the time of the incident.

Penalties for Firearms Violations

Illegal carrying of weapons still applies to anyone who carries while prohibited from doing so, such as a person under 18 with a handgun or someone carrying in a restricted location. A first offense carries up to six months in jail and a fine of up to $500. Carrying a firearm while committing a crime of violence raises the penalty to one to two years in prison and a fine of up to $2,000.¹

Felon in possession is the most aggressively prosecuted firearms charge in the state, and it almost always results in prison time. The statute allows very little sentencing flexibility.⁶

Beyond prison and fines, Louisiana courts can seize and permanently forfeit any firearm used in or connected to a felony. A judge can also order forfeiture of any weapon found on the defendant at the time of arrest.¹⁴

Local Ordinances and NFA Items

State law preempts stricter local gun regulation. Cities and parishes cannot enact rules on sales, possession, storage, transportation, or taxation of firearms that go beyond state law, and any conflicting local ordinance is void.¹⁵ The same rules apply whether you are in New Orleans, Shreveport, or rural Vermilion Parish. Preemption does not stop local governments from imposing sales taxes or license fees, or from banning firearms in their own public buildings.

Louisiana allows civilian possession of suppressors, short-barreled rifles, and other items regulated under the federal National Firearms Act, provided you comply with federal registration and pay the required tax stamp through the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Suppressors may be used for hunting, though anyone convicted of a class four or greater hunting violation is barred from using a suppressor while hunting for five years after the conviction.¹⁶

1
Justia Law. Louisiana Revised Statutes Title 14 RS 14-95 – Illegal Carrying of Weapons
2
Louisiana State Legislature. Senate Bill No. 211
3
Justia Law. Louisiana Revised Statutes Title 40 RS 40-1379.3 – Statewide Permits for Concealed Handguns
4
Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Revised Statutes RS 14-95.6 – Firearm-Free Zone
5
Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Revised Statutes RS 14-95 – Illegal Carrying of Weapons
6
Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Revised Statutes RS 14-95.1 – Possession of Firearm or Carrying Concealed Weapon by a Convicted Felon
7
Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Revised Statutes RS 14-95.10 – Possession of a Firearm or Carrying of a Concealed Weapon
8
Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Revised Statutes RS 14-95.8 – Illegal Possession of a Handgun by a Juvenile
9
Louisiana State Police. Reciprocity
10
Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Revised Statutes RS 40-1379.3 – Statewide Permits for Concealed Handguns
11
Louisiana State Police. CHP Fees
12
Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Revised Statutes RS 14-19 – Use of Force or Violence in Defense
13
Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Revised Statutes RS 14-20 – Justifiable Homicide
14
Justia Law. Louisiana Code of Criminal Procedure Art. 891 – Forfeiture of Weapons
15
Justia Law. Louisiana Revised Statutes Title 40 RS 40-1796 – Preemption of State Law
16
Justia Law. Louisiana Revised Statutes Title 56 RS 56-116.6 – Sound Suppressors