Louisiana Permitless Carry: Restrictions, BAC Limit, and Penalties

Louisiana’s permitless carry law lets anyone at least 18 years old carry a concealed handgun without a permit, as long as they are not otherwise prohibited from possessing a firearm under state or federal law. The change took effect July 4, 2024. It does not erase the location bans, the duty to tell police you are armed, or the alcohol limit that applied before, and getting any of those wrong can turn a legal carrier into a criminal defendant.¹

Who Can Carry Without a Permit

RS 14:95(M) covers “any person” who is at least 18 and not barred from possessing a firearm by any state or federal law.¹ The word “person” matters: out-of-state visitors driving through Louisiana get the same treatment as residents.

Federal law disqualifies anyone convicted of a crime punishable by more than one year in prison, unlawful users of a controlled substance, people adjudicated as mentally defective or involuntarily committed, and those with a dishonorable military discharge.²

Louisiana adds its own bars. A conviction for a felony crime of violence, certain drug or sex offenses, or a burglary-related felony blocks possession and concealed carry until ten years have passed since the person finished their sentence, probation, or parole without a new felony.³ A separate ten-year ban runs from completion of sentence for anyone convicted of domestic abuse battery or certain dating-partner battery offenses.⁴

Where You Cannot Carry

RS 14:95(N) makes permitless carriers follow every location restriction that binds concealed handgun permit holders under RS 40:1379.3(N) and related sections.¹ The list is long, and several of the rules are broader than most people expect.

Schools and the 1,000-Foot Zone

Firearms are banned on any school campus, school bus, or school-sponsored event, covering everything from elementary schools through colleges and universities. The prohibition extends 1,000 feet from any campus boundary.⁵

Two exceptions matter for daily carry. A firearm entirely inside a motor vehicle is exempt from the firearm-free-zone rule, so a gun in your car in a school parking lot is fine as long as it stays in the car. Private property and private residences within the 1,000-foot zone are also outside the ban.⁶ Permitless carriers may also carry concealed within the 1,000-foot zone as long as they do not step onto school property itself.⁵

Penalties for school-property or firearm-free-zone violations reach up to five years in prison at hard labor even on a first offense. If the firearm is used in a violent crime on school grounds, the sentence runs one to five years plus a fine of up to $2,000.⁵

Courthouses, Jails, and Government Buildings

RS 14:95(A)(5) flatly bans firearms in law enforcement stations and buildings, detention facilities, prisons, jails, courthouses and courtrooms, and the state capitol.¹ Judges may carry in their own courtrooms; nobody else may. RS 40:1379.3(N)(5) adds any municipal building or public structure used as the meeting place of a local governing authority, such as a city hall where the council meets.⁷

Carrying in any of these buildings brings up to six months in jail, a fine of up to $500, or both.¹

Bars and Alcohol-Serving Establishments

RS 14:95.5 bans firearms at any “alcoholic beverage outlet,” defined as any commercial place where alcohol is sold by the drink for on-site consumption, “whether or not such sales are a primary or incidental purpose of the business.”⁸ That covers bars, pubs, brewery taprooms, and restaurants with a bar area.

The narrow exception: carriers may carry in an establishment holding a Class A-Restaurant permit, the license for sit-down restaurants where food is the main business. Class A-General retail permits, typical for bars, remain off-limits.⁸ If you cannot tell which license a business holds, secure the firearm in your vehicle. Violation carries up to six months in jail, a fine of up to $500, or both.

Places of Worship

Concealed carry is prohibited in any church, synagogue, mosque, or similar place of worship unless the person with authority over the house of worship specifically authorizes it. Even where a religious leader grants permission, the congregation must be informed and any permit holder who carries there must complete an additional eight hours of tactical training annually.⁷ Without an express opt-in from the leadership, your firearm stays outside.

Other Off-Limits Places

The rest of the restricted list under RS 40:1379.3(N):

Polling places on election day.
Any portion of an airport where federal law prohibits firearms, meaning past the TSA checkpoint. An encased, unloaded firearm may still be brought into the terminal to check as baggage.
Parades and demonstrations that required a government permit, if you are an active participant. Spectators are not restricted.

All of these apply to permitless carriers exactly as they apply to permit holders.⁷

You Must Tell Police You Are Armed

This is the rule people miss most often. When a police officer approaches you in an official capacity, you must immediately tell the officer you have a weapon on you, submit to a pat down, and allow the officer to temporarily take possession of the firearm. The duty applies to both permit holders and permitless carriers.⁷

Traffic stops, on-the-street encounters, any situation where an officer engages you for an official purpose. That is when disclosure kicks in. You do not owe the information to officers who happen to be nearby. But once an officer engages you officially, silence about the gun is itself a crime.

For permitless carriers, failure to disclose falls under RS 40:1379.3(L): a fine up to $500, imprisonment up to six months, or both.⁷ For permit holders, the same failure triggers an automatic six-month permit suspension. Practically, officers who find an undisclosed weapon respond very differently than officers who were told up front.

The .05 BAC Limit

You cannot carry concealed while under the influence of alcohol or any controlled substance. Louisiana draws the line at a blood alcohol concentration of .05, lower than the .08 threshold for drunk driving.⁷ For most adults, two drinks in an hour will do it. An officer with reasonable grounds to suspect impairment can take temporary possession of the handgun, detain the carrier, and request a chemical test.

The .05 rule is separate from the ban on carrying in bars. A backyard barbecue on private land is not a prohibited location, but carrying concealed after a couple of beers there is still illegal.

Penalties for Illegal Carrying

A first offense of illegal carrying under RS 14:95 draws a fine of up to $500, up to six months in jail, or both.¹ Repeat convictions climb fast:

Second conviction: up to five years in prison, with or without hard labor.
Third and subsequent convictions: up to ten years in prison, with no probation, parole, or suspension of sentence.

Both second and third offenses are felonies.¹

Anyone who possesses a firearm after a qualifying violent felony, certain drug offenses, or sex offenses faces five to twenty years at hard labor and a fine between $1,000 and $5,000, without probation or parole.³

Stand Your Ground and the Castle Doctrine

Louisiana imposes no duty to retreat. If you are somewhere you have a right to be and you are not engaged in illegal activity, you may stand your ground and use force, including deadly force, when you reasonably believe you face imminent danger of death or great bodily harm.⁹

The castle doctrine is strong. When someone unlawfully and forcibly enters your home, business, or occupied vehicle, the law presumes you held a reasonable belief that deadly force was necessary, and a jury cannot consider whether you could have retreated.⁹ The presumption does not apply if you were engaged in drug trafficking at the time. Deadly force is also justified to prevent a violent or forcible felony when a reasonable person would fear serious danger to life and preventing the felony without deadly force would expose someone to that danger.

Why Getting a Permit Still Makes Sense

Louisiana still issues concealed handgun permits, and there are real reasons to hold one.

Reciprocity is the biggest. Louisiana has mutual recognition agreements with more than 35 other states, so a Louisiana permit lets you carry legally when you cross state lines into those states.¹⁰ Without a permit, your right to carry concealed stops at the state line unless the destination has its own permitless carry law covering non-residents.

A permit can also stand in for the NICS background check at the point of a firearms purchase, provided the ATF has granted the appropriate waiver.⁷

The permit requires a firearms safety training course. The fee is $125 for a five-year permit at ages 21 through 64, $62.50 for applicants 65 and older, and $500 for a lifetime permit; veterans with an honorable discharge pay no fee.¹¹ You must be at least 21 to apply for a permit even though permitless carry starts at 18, so 18- to 20-year-olds who want to carry concealed have only the permitless route available inside Louisiana.

1
Justia Law. Louisiana Revised Statutes 14:95 – Illegal Carrying of Weapons
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 922 – Unlawful Acts
3
Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Code RS 14:95.1 – Possession of Firearm or Carrying Concealed Weapon by a Person Convicted of Certain Felonies
4
Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Code RS 14:95.10 – Possession of a Firearm or Carrying of a Concealed Weapon by a Person Convicted of Domestic Abuse Battery and Certain Offenses of Battery of a Dating Partner
5
Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Code RS 14:95.2 – Carrying a Firearm or Dangerous Weapon by a Student or Nonstudent on School Property, at School-Sponsored Functions, or in a Firearm-Free Zone
6
Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Code RS 14:95.6 – Firearm-Free Zone; Notice; Signs
7
Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Code RS 40:1379.3 – Statewide Permits for Concealed Handguns
8
Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Code RS 14:95.5 – Possession of Firearm on Premises of Alcoholic Beverage Outlet
9
Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Code RS 14:20 – Justifiable Homicide
10
Louisiana State Police. Reciprocity
11
Louisiana State Police. CHP Fees