Police shootings bring attention to Louisiana's 'open carry'

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BY MAYA LAU and JIM MUSTIAN

As ominous a sight as it was, Gavin Long’s heavily armed walk down Airline Highway fell squarely within Louisiana law, which allows gun owners to openly carry firearms in public.

Long's handling of a military-style rifle likely would have prompted Baton Rouge police to question him, regardless of whether any 911 calls had been placed about him. But before he leveled the Israeli-made assault weapon at his first victim — or committed some other crime — authorities had no right to take him into custody.

In fact, in the moments before he gunned down three law enforcement officers and wounded three others July 17, Long had been merely a “subject walking with a coat and an assault rifle," as one dispatcher described him.

Or as State Police Col. Mike Edmonson put it, quoting the initial emergency call, he was a "dude with a rifle going down Airline Highway."

“We don’t really have very many options in this situation because, under the (state) constitution and probable cause (rules), the only thing we really have is public concern,” Baton Rouge Police Chief Carl Dabadie said in an interview last week. “Should we have been able to stop him? That’s a question the legislators are going to have to work out.”

The bloodshed that Long unleashed in Baton Rouge last month has exposed an ambivalence among some law enforcement leaders about the right Louisianians enjoy to carry firearms openly in public — an unease that pits them against some Second Amendment advocates. Often aligned when it comes to guns, the two camps are divided over the wisdom of "open carry" and the challenges it presents for police.

"It scares the hell out of me," Sgt. C. Bryan Taylor, the president of the Baton Rouge police union, said of open carry, adding there’s an even greater risk for officers who encounter citizens sporting exposed rifles or shotguns. "There's a time and place for everything," he said, adding that he would prefer owners of long guns to avoid carrying those weapons in public.

Anyone legally permitted to own a weapon in Louisiana — generally speaking, those who are 18 and older and are not convicted felons — may carry any type of firearm in public places without any training or permit.

Open carry is legal in Louisiana because it's never been outlawed, experts say. The state constitution affirms the right of people to bear arms, and case law dating back to 1850 has held that to mean people may carry firearms openly.

Some Second Amendment advocates say banning open carry could create a slippery slope toward infringing on gun rights, which are firmly enshrined in Louisiana. ...

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