Louisiana Republicans have never met a gun bill they didn’t want to push further. With House Bill 99, they are now aiming squarely at college and university campuses—spaces already grappling with mental health crises, student safety concerns, and a state gun violence epidemic that is objectively out of control.
Authored by Republican Rep. Danny McCormick, HB99 would allow anyone 18 or older who can legally possess a firearm to carry a gun on the campuses of public colleges and universities, as well as private institutions that receive any state funding. The bill is explicit in its intent: to “affirm” Second Amendment rights and to align campus rules with Louisiana’s 2024 permitless concealed carry law.
But stripped of rhetoric, HB99 is less about constitutional principle and more about ideological escalation—a race among Republicans to prove who can bend the furthest for the gun lobby, regardless of context, consequences, or basic public safety.
A Solution in Search of a Problem
There is no evidence — none — that Louisiana’s colleges are suffering from a lack of firearms. What they are dealing with are rising rates of student anxiety, depression, suicide risk, and interpersonal conflict. HB99 responds to those realities by flooding campuses with lethal weapons and explicitly prohibiting universities from imposing stricter rules, training requirements, or even firearm registration.
Under the bill, university governing boards would be legally barred from enacting campus-specific safety policies that go beyond state law. Faculty, staff, students, contractors, and visitors would all be treated the same—meaning an 18-year-old freshman and a visiting stranger are equally entitled to carry a gun into most campus spaces, no permit, no training, no oversight required.
This is not local control. It is legislative micromanagement in service of a political talking point.
Danger by Design
Supporters will point to the bill’s carve-outs—no guns in active disciplinary hearings, mental health facilities, or events with security screening—as proof of “balance.” In reality, those exceptions underscore how hollow the bill’s logic is. Lawmakers implicitly acknowledge that firearms pose a danger in emotionally charged or vulnerable settings, then proceed to legalize them everywhere else students live, study, argue, drink, date, and break down.
Louisiana consistently ranks second or third in the nation for gun death rates. Over 1,200 people die from gun violence here in an average year. Firearms are the leading cause of death among children and teens in the state. Nearly 70 percent of domestic violence homicides involve a gun. The state’s gun death rate has risen nearly 50 percent in the last decade.
In that context, putting more guns into densely populated, high-stress environments filled with young adults is not neutral policy. It is an accelerant.
Performance Politics for the Gun Lobby
HB99 does not exist in a vacuum. It follows the passage of permitless carry in 2024 and fits a clear pattern: Republicans advancing ever-looser gun laws to signal loyalty to national gun advocacy groups like the National Rifle Association, regardless of whether those laws make sense in specific circumstances.
This is governance by escalation. Each session must go further than the last, not because data demands it, but because the Republican primary electorate and the gun lobby expect it. College campuses—where students skew younger, more diverse, and more politically inconvenient—become collateral damage in that performance.
The Bottom Line
HB99 is counterproductive, dangerous, and deeply unserious about the realities of gun violence in Louisiana. It ties the hands of universities, ignores overwhelming public health data, and treats ideological purity as more important than student safety.
You can support the Second Amendment and still recognize that context matters. Republicans in Baton Rouge have made it clear they are no longer interested in that distinction.
And Louisiana’s students will be the ones living with the consequences.