What Second Amendment?

One of the outrages of the Katrina disaster, mostly ignored by the mainstream (read liberal) media was the confiscation of guns from law-abiding citizens. With reports of looting, assaults and rapes, P. Edwin Compass III, the superintendant of Police ordered that only the police will be able to carry firearms. To be more accurate, only police and people rich enough to hire private security firms to protect them. This of course is an assinine order in light of the the type of animals who tend to surface during disasters.

Not only were most citizen banned from carrying firearms, citizens had their homes, or what was left of them entered and searched by police. Legally posessed firearms were confiscated. As Larry and Erich Pratt of the Gun Owners Of America wrote in a recent article, “So if Mayor Ray Nagin really wanted to help the decent citizens of New Orleans, (given his shoddy performance prior to and during the disaster, he didn’t. My note) he would be issuing law abiding citizens firearms instead of taking them away. Nagin's actions will put people in further jeopardy -- and if one citizen dies in New Orleans because he was deprived of the ability to defend himself or his family, there will be blood on the Mayor's hands."

As I wrote in a previous blog, only a fool depends solely on the government for help during an emergency. Being armed is a must

A local, milder example of government excess occurred in Moss Landing, near Monterey over the Labor Day weekend. Several boats were boarded and searched by the Coast Guard in what were called “safety inspections”. The Coast Guard has the authority to search boats for safety, but according to reports, many of the searches were done at around 10:30 PM. Some of the residents (Apparently, there are people other than Sonny Crockett who live on their boats) felt intimidated because some of the Coast Guard members were armed with M-16s, and the Coast Guard boats had machineguns on their bows. (Of course I don’t expect the guns, which are standard equipment to be removed from the boats for a search)

Being as the people searched were not suspected of any wrongdoing, the searches could have been done at a more reasonable hour.

Hopefully, the two above incidents don’t signal a return to the Clinton regime’s jack-booted thugs.

ROBOT

***UPDATE***

From the National Rifle Association

(Fairfax, VA) - Today, the National Rifle Association (NRA) filed a motion in United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana seeking a temporary restraining order to block authorities from confiscating law-abiding citizens' firearms in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

"New Orleans is the first city in the United States to forcibly disarm peaceable law-abiding citizens and it must be the last. Victims are dealing with a complete breakdown of government. At a time when 911 is non-operational and law enforcement cannot respond immediately to calls for help, people have only the Second Amendment to protect themselves, their loved ones and their property," said NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre.

*****GOOD NEWS**********

From the NRA Institute for Legislative Action

Major Victory For Firearms Owners And Freedom In Louisiana

Friday, September 23, 2005

(Fairfax, VA) -- The United States District Court for the Eastern District in Louisiana today sided with the National Rifle Association (NRA) and issued a restraining order to bar further gun confiscations from peaceable and law-abiding victims of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.

“This is a significant victory for freedom and for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. The court’s ruling is instant relief for the victims who now have an effective means of defending themselves from the robbers and rapists that seek to further exploit the remnants of their shattered lives,” said NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre.

Joining LaPierre in hailing the U.S. District Court decision was NRA chief lobbyist Chris W. Cox. “This is an important victory. But the battle is not over. The NRA will remedy state emergency statutes in all 50 states, if needed, to ensure that this injustice does not happen again."

The controversy erupted when The New York Times reported, the New Orleans superintendent of police directed that no civilians in New Orleans will be allowed to have guns and that “only law enforcement are allowed to have weapons.” ABC News quoted New Orleans’ deputy police chief, saying, “No one will be able to be armed. We are going to take all the weapons.”

The NRA also pledged that it will continue its work to ensure that every single firearm arbitrarily and unlawfully seized under this directive is returned to the rightful law-abiding owner.