Louisiana Says 18-Year-Olds Can Carry — Then Traps Them in 1,300 Invisible Gun-Free Zones

Louisiana brags about being a constitutional carry state. What it doesn't advertise: 18- to 20-year-olds who carry under that law are one wrong street corner from a federal felony.

The Firearms Policy Coalition filed **Pool v. Hodges** on July 22, 2026, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana. The plaintiffs are 19-year-old Ella Pool, 18-year-old Christian McDuffie, and FPC itself. The defendant is Louisiana State Police Superintendent Col. Robert P. Hodges.

Here's the trap: Louisiana law (La. R.S. § 40:1379.3(C)(4)) bars adults under 21 from obtaining a concealed carry permit. That sounds minor in a permitless carry state — until you remember the federal Gun-Free School Zones Act makes it a crime to carry within 1,000 feet of any K-12 school. The exemption for that federal law requires a state-issued permit. No permit, no exemption.

Louisiana has more than 1,300 schools. Their overlapping 1,000-foot buffers carve invisible felony zones across virtually every urban road, neighborhood, and daily commute in the state. An 18-year-old carrying legally under Louisiana's own constitutional carry law can cross into a federal crime zone without a single sign warning them.

It gets worse. Louisiana also provides civil immunity for justified self-defense to licensed carriers (La. R.S. § 9:2793.12(B)). Adults under 21 don't qualify — they carry without a permit by design, so they carry without that protection too. Defend your life lawfully, and a plaintiff's attorney can still drag you into civil court.

FPC is leaning hard on the Fifth Circuit's January 2025 ruling in *Reese v. ATF* — FPC's own prior victory — which held that peaceable 18- to 20-year-olds are squarely within "the People" protected by the Second Amendment. That binding precedent already killed the federal ban on handgun sales to that age group. Now it's pointed directly at Louisiana's permit wall.

"Louisiana denies them access to the permits they need to fully exercise their right to bear arms in public, trapping them in a sprawling maze of invisible gun-free zones," FPC said in a statement. "That is not constitutional carry — it is blatant constitutional infringement."

They're right. Louisiana handed 18-year-olds the right to carry with one hand and built a felony minefield around them with the other. The Fifth Circuit already told Louisiana — and every other circuit — how this analysis ends.

**Watch Pool v. Hodges.** With *Reese* as binding precedent and Bruen as the framework, this case is winnable. Support FPC at firearmspolicy.org and follow the docket at fpc.org/pool.