Louisiana Knife Laws: Permitless Carry at 18, the School Zone, and Preemption Since 2024

The Short Version

Louisiana has never banned a knife. Its one knife rule lived in R.S. 14:95, "Illegal carrying of weapons," and for most of the statute's life it did two things: it prohibited "the intentional concealment of any firearm, or other instrumentality customarily used or intended for probable use as a dangerous weapon, on one's person," and it prohibited concealing a switchblade by name. The switchblade paragraph was repealed effective August 1, 2022. Then the 2024 permitless carry act added subsection M, effective July 4, 2024, under which the concealment paragraph "shall not apply to any person who is eighteen years of age or older and is not prohibited from possessing a firearm." The result is that an adult in Louisiana may carry any knife, openly or concealed, with no permit, and the only rules that remain are about places and about minors.

One more change matters: on August 1, 2024, Louisiana extended its firearms preemption statute to "knives, edged weapons, or any combination thereof," which voided the New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Shreveport knife ordinances that used to be the real traps in this state. For a TEKTO customer every knife we make is legal to own and carry in Louisiana, including the OTF automatics and the double-edged A7 Zastava, and the two places to be careful are the ones every state shares: schools, where Louisiana draws a thousand-foot line, and courthouses.

The Statute: 14:95 and the Dangerous Weapon

14:95(A) lists five kinds of illegal carrying. Paragraph (1)(a) is the concealment rule quoted above. Paragraph (2) is enemy aliens, (3) is burglar's tools, (4) is "the intentional possession or use by any person of a dangerous weapon on a school campus during regular school hours or on a school bus," and (5) is "the intentional possession or use of a dangerous weapon" in a law enforcement building, a jail, a courthouse or courtroom, or the state capitol. A first offense is "fined not more than five hundred dollars, or imprisoned for not more than six months, or both". A second conviction carries up to five years and a third up to ten without parole.

"Dangerous weapon" is defined in 14:2(A)(3) as "any gas, liquid or other substance or instrumentality, which, in the manner used, is calculated or likely to produce death or great bodily harm." That is a manner-of-use definition: a knife is a dangerous weapon when it is used as one, and the concealment paragraph adds its own test, an instrumentality "customarily used or intended for probable use as a dangerous weapon." A dagger is customarily a weapon. A pocketknife is customarily a tool. Between them is a jury question, which since 2024 only a minor has to worry about.

Carry at 18: Subsection M Since July 4, 2024

Louisiana's permitless carry act, Act 1 of the 2024 Second Extraordinary Session, is written around handguns, but the subsection it added to 14:95 is not. Subsection M provides that "the provisions of Subparagraph (A)(1)(a) of this Section shall not apply to any person who is eighteen years of age or older and is not prohibited from possessing a firearm under R.S. 14:95.1, 18 U.S.C. 922(g), or any other state or federal law." Subparagraph (A)(1)(a) is the entire concealment rule, for firearms and for every "other instrumentality customarily used or intended for probable use as a dangerous weapon." A legal adult who could lawfully own a gun may therefore conceal a dagger, a bowie knife, an OTF or anything else, and subsection (1)(b) had already said the same for concealed handgun permit holders. The exception is the person who is "prohibited from possessing a firearm," chiefly those with the felony convictions listed in 14:95.1, for whom a concealed weapon is a separate felony carrying five to twenty years.

Switchblades: 2012, 2022 and Now

Louisiana never banned owning a switchblade. It banned concealing one. In 2012 the Legislature, at AKTI's request, amended the switchblade paragraph to adopt the "bias toward closure" definition, which made clear that assisted openers and other one-hand knives with a thumb stud or flipper were not switchblades. Effective August 1, 2022, the paragraph was repealed outright, so the statute no longer names any knife mechanism, and two years later subsection M made the question moot for adults. An OTF automatic in Louisiana today is governed by exactly the rules that govern a fixed blade: carry it anywhere but the places below, and if you are under 18, carry it openly.

Under 18: What Is Customarily a Dangerous Weapon

For a person under 18 the original rule still applies, and it has no pocketknife exception. The only question is whether the concealed object is an "instrumentality customarily used or intended for probable use as a dangerous weapon." A dagger, a push dagger, a stiletto or a knife carried for a fight is. A small folding knife carried as a tool is not, on the ordinary meaning of "customarily," but no statute says so, and the intent half of the phrase, "intended for probable use," lets the circumstances of the stop decide. The safe rule for a minor in Louisiana is the one we give in every state with an age line: carry the knife where it can be seen, clipped outside the pocket or on a belt, and the statute does not apply at all. Louisiana sets no minimum age to buy or own a knife.

Schools and the 1,000-Foot Zone

Two statutes cover schools. 14:95(A)(4) makes it a six-month misdemeanor to possess a dangerous weapon on an elementary, secondary, high school or vocational-technical campus "during regular school hours or on a school bus." 14:95.2 is the serious one: carrying "a firearm, or dangerous weapon as defined in R.S. 14:2" on a school campus, on school transportation, at any school-sponsored function "or within one thousand feet of any school campus" is punishable by up to five years at hard labor, and "school" here includes colleges and universities. Subsection E provides that "lack of knowledge that the prohibited act occurred on or within one thousand feet of school property shall not be a defense." The manner-of-use definition means a knife carried as a tool is not, strictly, a dangerous weapon, and a weapon "contained entirely within a motor vehicle" is exempt. We would not rely on either. In Louisiana's cities a thousand feet from a campus is most of downtown, and the knife in the glove box is the way to carry it there.

Where You Cannot Carry

• School campuses, buses, functions and the 1,000-foot zoneAny dangerous weapon. Up to five years at hard labor under 14:95.2, six months under 14:95(A)(4). A weapon kept entirely within a motor vehicle is exempt from 14:95.2.
  14:95.2
• Police stations, jails, courthouses and the state capitolIntentional possession of a dangerous weapon in any of them is a six-month misdemeanor under 14:95(A)(5). Judges may carry in their own courtrooms, and screening at the door refuses knives of every kind.
  14:95(A)(5)
• Airports and federal propertyNo knives past the checkpoint at Louis Armstrong New Orleans or Baton Rouge under federal rules, and none in a federal building or courthouse under 18 U.S.C. 930.
  TSA
• Bars and places that postLouisiana's list of places off limits to concealed handgun carriers (R.S. 40:1379.3) is about handguns, not knives, but a business may bar knives and a bar is the one place where a knife most often becomes a "dangerous weapon" in the manner used.
  Trespass
• Private property and workplacesAn owner may bar knives and an employer may set a policy. The remedy is being asked to leave or being disciplined, and after that, trespass.
  Trespass

Preemption Since August 1, 2024

Until 2024 the hard knife rules in Louisiana were municipal. New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Shreveport each had an ordinance restricting knives, and 14:95(F)(1) still counts a conviction under a local ordinance toward the state statute's repeat-offender enhancement. SB 194 of 2024, Act 59, signed May 15, 2024, and effective August 1, 2024, amended R.S. 40:1796, the firearms preemption statute, so that no governing authority of a political subdivision may enact or enforce any ordinance or regulation on "firearms, ammunition, firearms accessories, knives, edged weapons, or any combination thereof," and required every political subdivision to repeal or amend any ordinance in conflict. A person harmed by an ordinance enforced in violation of the section may sue the political subdivision. The city codes may still print the old sections. They are unenforceable, and the state rules on this page are the whole of the law in every parish.

Penalties

A dangerous weapon used while committing a crime of violence or a drug offense raises the 14:95 penalty to five to ten years at hard labor under subsection E, which is the provision that turns a legal pocketknife into a decade when it is drawn in a fight.

What the Internet Gets Wrong

Four things. First, that switchblades cannot be carried concealed in Louisiana. That ended August 1, 2022. Second, that you need a concealed handgun permit to conceal a knife. That ended July 4, 2024, for anyone 18 or older who may own a gun. Third, that New Orleans has its own blade limit. It did. Since August 1, 2024, state law preempts it and every other local knife rule. Fourth, that a pocketknife is fine near a school because it is not a weapon. Under 14:95.2 the thousand-foot zone includes colleges, ignorance of the line is no defense, and whether the knife was a dangerous weapon is decided after the arrest, not before. Keep it in the car.

TEKTO Knives for Louisiana

Every TEKTO knife is legal to carry in Louisiana, concealed or open, from 18 on. The A5 Spry in any blade style and the A7 Zastava with its double-edged spear point are legal in a pocket here, which is not true in the states on either side. The A3 Delta side-opening automatic is a 3.60-inch D2 drop point with a button lock and a safety, a good fit for a state where the law asks nothing about the mechanism. The X1 Atlas fixed blade in MagnaCut goes on a belt or in a pack for the marsh and the woods. Under 18, carry any of them openly. None of them goes within a thousand feet of a school.