In a matter of days, the University of Louisiana at Lafayette Science Museum went from a popular children’s attraction to a contentious firearms free zone and back again as the Hub City became the latest battleground between Second Amendment supporters and gun control advocates.

On Monday, representatives from the Lafayette Police Department began notifying media outlets that the University of Louisiana at Lafayette Science Museum would be reclassified as a firearms free zone, with signage already placed around the 1,000-foot boundary.

The change meant that for much of downtown Lafayette, lawfully carrying a handgun would be next to impossible.

According to State Senator Blake Miguez of New Iberia, who authored the Constitutional Carry bill that became law on July 4th of this year, the change was a direct attack on the right of Louisiana citizens to keep and bear arms.

“I would caution Lafayette Police from arresting anyone within 1000′ of the Science Museum in downtown Lafayette for the sole fact of lawfully possessing a concealed firearm for self protection under the new Constitutional Carry law,” Miguez wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “This would be a civil rights violation. The CEA entered into by LCG & (The University of Louisiana at Lafayette) to operate the museum does not meet the “school property” definition to trigger a gun free zone under RS14:95.6. This may again be another case of local government trying to arbitrarily create more gun free zones which only disarm the innocent being preyed upon by violent criminals walking our streets. Gun free zones may have a feel good effect to some but they do not improve public safety.”

Shortly after the signage went up around the museum, Lafayette Mayor-President Monique Boulet issued guidance to the LPD to refrain from enforcing the law for the foreseeable future.

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill agreed with Sen. Miguez’s assessment, and thanked Mayor-President Boulet for issuing the stay order to the LPD.

“The law on Gun-Free School Zones is narrow,” said AG Murrill on X. “The Lafayette Science Museum downtown does not fall under it. I want to thank Lafayette Parish Mayor-President Monique Boulet for directing the (Lafayette Police Department) to refrain from taking actions against law-abiding individuals on the basis of violating this improperly posted gun-free school zone.”

The back-and-forth comes just weeks after the New Orleans Police Department reclassified their French Quarter station into a vocational school in an attempt to create a gun free zone. Critics challenged that designation as well, but so far have been unsuccessful in overturning the reclassification.