The killings of our friends and neighbors
9th December 2024 · 0 Comments
When Governor Jeff Landry signed Senate Bill 1 into law on March 5, 2024, and it became effective on July 4, the inevitable became a reality. We would experience wanton, unnecessary homicides and gunshot injuries, especially in New Orleans.
A law allowing anyone 18 or older to legally carry a concealed firearm and open carry it without a permit, license, or safety training misinterprets the outdated Second Amendment: “A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
The addition of the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1791 had more to do with the founding fathers declaring independence and keeping the newly constitutional federal government from usurping states’ rights than anything else.
And for those literalists, when the Second Amendment was added to the Constitution, the “Arms” were muskets, not assault weapons.
Obviously, Landry, who holds an A+ NRA (National Rifle Association) rating, and his fellow Republican legislators couldn’t care less about polling showing that over 80 percent of gun owners, non-gun owners, Republicans, Democrats and Independents agree that comprehensive safety standards are critical in issuing concealed carry permits.
Opposition to the law by The Louisiana chapters of Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action, both part of Everytown for Gun Safety’s grassroots network, fell on deaf ears.
Yes, we can take some solace from reports in September and October 2024 that New Orleans was leading the nation in violent crime reduction.
Those reports showed the number of homicides in New Orleans in 2024 is 44 percent lower than in 2023, 52 percent lower than in 2022, 31 percent lower than in 2021, and 16 percent lower than in 2020.
However, the French Quarter has seen more homicides in 2024 than in any year since 2011, the Metropolitan Crime Commission reported in September. At the time of that report, there were 102 homicides.
Other reports cited 111 homicides in November 2024; by December 2, the number was 118. The fact that those numbers were much less than the 180 homicides in 2023 is no consolation to the families of the victims or to the residents of the Crescent City who are fearful of becoming a casualty of the randomness of these deadly acts of violence.
But it was just a matter of time before New Orleans, the economic engine of Louisiana, became a shooting gallery of permit-less guns blazing in the heart of the French Quarter, downtown, uptown, Central City, Garden District, Algiers and beyond. Check out homicide locations at https://communitycrimemap.com/map.
As 2024 ends, we are inundated daily with reports of homicides, gun battles and retributive murders. The killings of two people at a second-line parade in the St. Roch neighborhood in late November that also injured ten people, gun battles on Canal Street and the mass shooting at the Republic nightclub add up to an unsafe city.
The insidiousness of not demanding gun owners to have licenses, permits and safety training is untenable.
That felons or people who are engaged in criminal behavior or who have been convicted of crimes are not prohibited from owning and carrying weapons is incredibly insane.
Maybe reasonable minds will prevail someday, and sensible gun safety laws will be enacted. As the loss of loved ones continue to climb and our tourist dollars begin to take a nose dive, because as one councilperson advises they will “stay home if they don’t want to have fun in New Orleans”…..
Hope springs eternal, but we won’t hold our breath.
This article originally published in the December 9, 2024 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
