Can You Carry Without a Permit in Louisiana?

Louisiana's concealed carry rules live in two places: Louisiana Revised Statutes 14:95 (the criminal code's "illegal carrying of weapons" section) and R.S. 40:1379.3 (the permit statute). For decades, 14:95 made it a crime to intentionally conceal a handgun on your person unless you held a state-issued permit. That changed with an amendment that took effect July 4, 2024, codified in the official legislative record as Acts 2024, Second Extraordinary Session, No. 1. You'll see different bill numbers floating around on gun-law blogs and forums, but the statute's own amendment history settles it: this is the law that added the no-permit exception.

The base crime is still on the books. R.S. 14:95(A)(1)(a) defines illegal carrying as:

"The intentional concealment of any firearm, or other instrumentality customarily used or intended for probable use as a dangerous weapon, on one's person."

The fix sits in a new subsection added to that same statute. R.S. 14:95(M) states:

"The provisions of Subparagraph (A)(1)(a) of this Section shall not apply to any person who is eighteen years of age or older and is not prohibited from possessing a firearm under R.S. 14:95.1, 18 U.S.C. 922(g), or any other state or federal law."

Translation: if you're 18 or up, and you're not a convicted felon barred under R.S. 14:95.1, not subject to a federal firearms disqualifier under 18 U.S.C. 922(g) (domestic violence convictions, protective orders, involuntary mental health commitments, dishonorable discharge, and the like), and not prohibited by some other state or federal law, concealing a handgun on your person is no longer a crime in Louisiana. No application, no fee, no class.

R.S. 14:95(N) immediately ties a string to that gift: anyone carrying under the M exception "shall be subject to the restrictions contained in R.S. 40:1379.3(I), (L), (M), (N), and (O)." Those subsections are the same place restrictions and conduct rules that have always applied to permit holders. Permitless carry didn't wipe those out. It just extended the privilege without requiring you to pay for and carry the card.

Open carry sits outside this whole conversation. Louisiana's criminal code has only ever criminalized concealment, not the act of carrying a visible firearm. That's why secondary gun-law sites routinely describe Louisiana as having allowed open carry long before the 2024 permitless carry change. Nothing in the 2024 amendment touched open carry because nothing needed to.

A 24-year-old in Baton Rouge tucks a holstered pistol inside his waistband under an untucked shirt and walks to the corner store. No permit in his wallet, no problem, as long as he's not a prohibited person. That's the exact scenario R.S. 14:95(M) was written to cover.

A couple visiting the French Quarter in New Orleans walk into a bar with a Class A-General retail permit to drink. If either one has a concealed handgun on them, that's a violation regardless of whether they have a state permit, because R.S. 40:1379.3(N)(10) bans concealed handguns in on-premise alcohol establishments for permit holders and permitless carriers alike. Worse, this specific stretch of New Orleans carries its own enhanced fine under R.S. 40:1379.3(L)(2), the French Quarter Management District, established under R.S. 25:799.

A woman carrying concealed drives into Shreveport for church on Sunday. Her sedan gets pulled over on the interstate for a burned-out taillight. Under R.S. 40:1379.3(I)(2), the same notification duty that's always applied to permit holders now applies to her too: if an officer approaches in an official capacity, she has to tell him she's carrying, submit to a pat-down, and let him temporarily take the gun. Skipping that step isn't a crime by itself, but it can trigger license-style consequences and gives the officer legal grounds to act.

That same church, if it hasn't given written permission for firearms on the property, is itself off the list under R.S. 40:1379.3(N)(8), which bars concealed handguns in churches, synagogues, mosques, and similar places of worship unless the person with authority over the building says otherwise.

Nobody is legally required to hold a Louisiana concealed handgun permit to carry concealed in-state anymore. But the permit system didn't go away, and a few groups still have real reasons to get one.

Nobody gets a workaround to the actual disqualifiers. A felon barred under R.S. 14:95.1, or anyone caught by an 18 U.S.C. 922(g) prohibitor, can't lawfully carry concealed in Louisiana whether or not they hold a permit, because the permit statute requires the same clean record the permitless exception does.

Key Point: None of this changes if you're carrying openly instead of concealed. The location restrictions in R.S. 14:95(A)(4) and (A)(5), covering schools, law enforcement buildings, courthouses, jails, and the state capitol, apply to possessing a dangerous weapon generally, not just concealed ones.

A lot of people hear "permitless carry" and assume it means carry anywhere, no questions asked. It doesn't. R.S. 40:1379.3(N) still lists eleven specific places where a concealed handgun isn't allowed, whether or not you have a permit:

• Law enforcement offices, stations, or buildings
• Detention facilities, prisons, or jails
• Courthouses or courtrooms (except a judge in his own courtroom)
• Polling places
• Municipal buildings used as a governing body's meeting place
• The state capitol building
• Restricted areas of airport facilities
• Churches, synagogues, mosques, or similar places of worship (absent permission)
• Permitted parades or demonstrations, for active participants
• Bars and other Class A-General alcohol establishments
• Schools, school campuses, and school buses

A second misconception: permitless carry doesn't touch private property rights. R.S. 40:1379.3(O)(1) spells out that a property owner, lessee, or lawful custodian can still ban concealed handguns from their premises, permit or no permit. A posted sign, or a verbal "leave it in the car," still controls.

A third: some people think the 2024 change made open carry legal in Louisiana for the first time. It didn't. Louisiana's weapons statute has only ever targeted concealment; walking around with a visible holstered firearm was never the crime 14:95 described, before or after 2024.

Finally, don't confuse "no permit required" with "no restrictions at all." The notification duty to police, the ban on carrying while intoxicated, and the list of off-limits locations all still apply to you even without a permit in your pocket, because R.S. 14:95(N) explicitly pulls those rules over from the permit statute.

• R.S. 14:95, Illegal carrying of weapons (Louisiana State Legislature)
• R.S. 40:1379.3, Statewide permits for concealed handguns (Louisiana State Legislature)

Last Reviewed: November 01, 2026