NEW ORLEANS — After a contentious moment between Attorney General Liz Murrill and city leaders, everyone seems to be back on the same page.
“It’s about getting to a mutual agreement, and we found common ground,” New Orleans Police Department Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said.
On Tuesday, NOPD Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick gave WWL Louisiana more details on a plan to keep the Quarter safe from gun violence, even after concealed carry goes into effect.
“I appreciate the attorney general for sitting down and talking it through and that led to a much better outcome,” Kirkpatrick said.
The plan is to open a vocational-technical school in the Eight District Police Station. According to state law, guns are prohibited within 1,000 feet of a school. Signage will alert visitors of the firearm-free zone.
The school got pushback from Attorney General Liz Murrill, who questioned its legitimacy.
On Thursday, city officials met with Murrill to try to come up with a solution. Kirkpatrick says the group landed on a partnership between NOPD and an already established votech school.
“Then you definitely have a vocational school located in the French Quarter, and that would be an agreed approach, by my understanding, that the attorney general would be comfortable with,” Kirkpatrick said.
According to the superintendent, the Eighth District Police Station would act as a satellite campus.
“It would be a happy marriage,” Kirkpatrick said.
This all comes on the heels of a recent spike in French Quarter gun violence, including the murder of 43-year-old tour guide Kristi Thibodeaux.
Metropolitan Crime Commission President Raphael Goyeneche says, when it comes to fighting crime, looser restrictions on firearms won’t be a good thing.
“Carrying a firearm without any training, any background checks, in a high-density pedestrian area like the French Quarter is a bad idea,” Goyeneche said.
For now, Kirkpatric says there is no date yet for the vocational-technical school partnership to begin, but she hopes it is soon.
“When everybody's talking and moving in the same direction, you're going get a whole lot more accomplished,” Kirkpatrick said.
A new statement was issued Wednesday, July 17, by a spokesperson with the Attorney General’s office saying, “The only reason this came to light was that Attorney General Murrill immediately voiced her concerns. There wasn’t an “agreement.” The Attorney General told them the law. There are statutes that allow for school zones if a real school actually exists. They would have to follow the law.”
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