Carrying a firearm in Louisiana
What state law requires, and what federal law adds on top of it. Every fact below shows where it came from and how far we have verified it.
Check a specific address on the map →- Permit required to carry concealed
- No — Louisiana allows permitless carry from age 18.
- Duty to inform law enforcement
- You must tell an officer you are armed at first contact, without being asked.
- Permits Louisiana recognises
- We have not yet ingested Louisiana's published recognition list. That is a gap in our data, not a statement that it recognises nothing.
- Restricted areas mapped in this state
- Federal school zones (1,000 ft)1,612
- Corps of Engineers areas102
- Tribal areas16
- Military installations15
The federal layer applies regardless
Federal law bars possession within 1,000 ft of a school, and the exemption requires a licence issued by the state the school sits in — a permit Louisiana merely honours through reciprocity does not satisfy it. Carrying permitlessly satisfies it even less, because there is no licence at all. This is the trap that catches travellers who correctly concluded their permit was good here.
18 U.S.C. § 922(q)(2)
Sources and how far we have verified them
- duty_to_inform·State duty-to-inform statutes (aggregated)Aggregated source — not yet verified against the statute · in force from 2026-01-01
- permitless_carry·La. Rev. Stat. § 40:1379.3Aggregated source — not yet verified against the statute · in force from 2024-07-04