Posted on 03/05/2006 4:50:17 AM PST by chemicalman
When people talk about the disaster in New Orleans these days it's in terms of the rebuilding effort or Mayor Nagin's 'Chocolate City' gaffe. But there's another story which isn't getting a lot of coverage anymore - it's the kind of story the mainstream media tends to avoid. Yet it might be more significant for the country in the long run. It's the story of the unconstitutional disarming of the New Orleans citizenry when they were faced by what was likely the greatest threat of their lives, right in their own neighborhoods.
At the height of the chaos in New Orleans, when gangs were ravishing the city the government decided to help out. Not by protecting neighborhoods and arresting looters. Instead they went after private citizens whose only crime was trying to defend themselves and their property.
Acting under an emergency statute which had never been used before, and on the orders of the Governor and Mayor, police in New Orleans, later supported by National Guardsmen, began going house to house and confiscating privately owned firearms in direct violation of the Second Amendment, leaving honest citizens who were already without water, food, electricity and decent shelter at the mercy of looters and other criminals. All these citizens wanted to do was to defend their homes and instead having already lost everything, they lost their last freedom, the freedom to defend themselves.
The National Rifle Association took action almost immediately and filed suit in a case which resulted in an injunction against the seizures and the eventual return of most of the firearms to their owners weeks and months later. The legal basis for the seizure was highly suspect and even in the face of the crisis the court realized this and acted to restore civil rights.
It was a brief crisis, corrected by the court system, but while judges could reverse what was done, they could never restore to the disarmed citizens their faith in a government which turned our protectors into storm troopers and wouldn't even let citizens protect themselves in a time of violence and chaos. Now four months have passed and we're all trying to put Katrina and the crisis in New Orleans behind us and move on. But this incident remains as an object lesson to all of us in how vulnerable we are in the face of government abuse of power, and how the interests of government are not always the interests of the people. It is something which should not and must not be forgotten as time passes, because it could happen again and there are plenty of people in this country who would like to see us all disarmed and living in fear.
Contempt Motion Filed Against New Orleans Mayor, Police Chief
and
SAF: CONTEMPT VIOLATION AGAINST NEW ORLEANS MAYOR, POLICE CHIEF
I was listening to the morning talkshow on my way to help rebuild my parent's camp in Grand Isle, when there was a call in discussion on this. It is not being "played" by any of the local media, so word has to get out to help keep our amendment rights before it spreads across the country.
In the immortal words of Ben Franklin, "...a republic, if you can hold on to it..."
So, where are the federal prosecutions of local officials for violating 18 USC 241 and 242? Is the Bush Justice Department once again showing its support for the Second and Fourth Amendments?
And President Bush and our government are rewarding these people with billions of our tax dollars.
If you live in New Orleans and Louissiana you should remember this when you go to the polls and put a new Mayor and Governor in charge.
I'm just wondering, how did they get them all?? Surely people denied having them or otherwise hid them? My husband would never give up his legal guns "just because I said so".
In most states you can use deadly force to resist armed robbery.
Someone coming to your house with a gun to illegally take your legal property sure sounds like armed robbery.
But it's hard for the government to take something from you, if they don't know you have it...
Mark
and a better gun hidden but accesible,,
And lots of cooking spices to mess with the dogs scenting.
Communication can also be helpful;there are probably 50 million CB radios sitting in closets and attics unused. If those radios were to hook those radio up to a simple wire antenna and car battery ,then uin disasters people would have another way to share information.And the little FRS radios too. I know they could all be jammed but that requires a bigger committment of totalitarian resources.
I still believe the push to super-expensive digital encrypted police radios is more about preventing Joe Public and "maverick" reporters from hearing donut runs and police abuses .How long until police live in special neighborhoods as in eastern Europe?
Ther are many places in this country where there is no requirements to register your guns.
If you buy a firearm from a dealer with an FFL, you'll have to fill out a form... And there will be a record.
Mark
Ther are many places in this country where there is no requirements to register your guns.
If you buy a gun from a private owner - no record.
If you state does not require registration - no record.
All perfectly legal.
That's why I will not live in a state that requires registration. Or even in a neighborhood that has a "homeowners association."
yes sir
One caller on the radio said he was visited by Calif.HP officers accompanied with a La. state trooper. He said he wasn't evacuating, and that he had plenty of food and water. The asked him if he was armed, and he said he had a rifle. The officers subdued him to the floor and took his rifle. No arrest. Just taken away his protection from possible looters. The caller said he never got his rifle back.
Please don't call me "sir." ;-)
Along with your good points. One of my pet peeves that I've voiced my opinion (to PD chiefs and supervisors) on, is that no police officer needs to wear ski masks looking like terrorist if they are lawfully enforcing the law. More grounds for a terrorized citizen to open fire.
Also, another indicator of potential abuse to citizens is little podunk towns developing SWAT teams, all too common and most are poorly trained and appeal to the wrong types. What happened to good, responsible law enforcement?
I'm sure BATF can spit out gun owner's data by name, area, zip code, city, whatever in order to get data on who's doors to knock on, at least for starters, that's where this stuff gets really irritating--and that's what it's designed to provide.
No, NO et al did not get them all. Actually, there was quite a ruckus behind the scenes, with various volunteering police departments threatening to pull out if the order was not recinded - which it eventually was. Seems that only the CHP (California Highway Patrol) cops, donating their services to the area, were the ones to actually do the house-to-house confiscations; they certainly did not "get them all".
They did get some, however. Some house-to-house inspections did take place, but seems (from what little info actually got out) the guns taken were literally in the hands of the owners, visible. I'm sure some were denied/hidden. However, anyone who was found holding one (and many people have only one) was at the wrong end of a heavily armed group demanding compliance under threat of death. One old lady refused to turn over her little revolver, so they body-slammed her (dislocating a shoulder, among other injuries).
HOORAY FOR THE NRA!
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