The Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) has announced it has filed a lawsuit challenging Louisiana’s ban on firearms carry by nonresidents.
In the case, Mate v. Westcott, which is being heard in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, FPC argues that the carry of firearms by residents and nonresidents alike is protected under the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Consequently, Louisiana’s ban on nonresident carry is unconstitutional.
“Peaceable people have a constitutionally protected right to carry firearms throughout the United States,” Brandon Combs, FPC president, said in a news release announcing the action. “Second Amendment-protected rights don’t end at a state’s border. This case is an important step towards achieving our goal of restoring the right to bear arms everywhere.”
The matter of Second Amendment rights currently being blocked when crossing state lines is one of the reasons National Concealed Carry Reciprocity is being discussed for the upcoming Congressional session, beginning in January. Until then, lawsuits like this one by FPC are attempting to end the trend of states not recognizing the rights of nonresidents.
Immediately addressing the first and second Bruen requirements, the complaint states: “Closing off nonresidents’ ability to obtain a carry license substantially infringes their constitutionally protected right to carry a firearm in public for self-defense. There is no well-established and representative historical tradition of restricting the ability to bear arms based on residency.”
As the plaintiffs pointed out, when Louisiana passed constitutional carry in July 2024 the legislature kept a permitting system in place for residents but failed to provide an avenue for nonresidents to apply for a permit. Such permits exempt holders from the 1,000-foot non-carry zone around schools, so many residents have chosen to continue having a permit.
In its complaint, FPC noted that the state failed to meet the second Bruen requirement of showing a historic precedent at the time of the nation’s founding for such a law.
“It is the state’s burden to ‘affirmatively prove that its firearms regulation is part of the historical tradition that delimits the outer bounds of the right to keep and bear arms,’” the complaint states. “Louisiana cannot meet this burden. There is no well-established and representative historical tradition of restricting the ability to bear arms based on residency. Accordingly, the residency requirement for obtaining a carry license in Louisiana … violates the Second and Fourteenth Amendments.”
In the end, plaintiffs are asking the court to overturn the laws and stop all enforcement of it.
“This court should enter a judgment that declares Louisiana’s non-resident carry restriction unconstitutional and enjoins Defendants (and all those under Defendants’ supervision) from enforcing the residency requirement for carry applications with respect to otherwise qualified individuals who are not Louisiana residents.”
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