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Ruling Seen As 'Landmark' Victory for New Orleans Gun Owners
CNSNews.com ^ | August 17, 2006 | Susan Jones

Posted on 08/17/2006 11:14:02 AM PDT by neverdem

Senior Editor

A federal judge on Wednesday rejected an attempt to dismiss a Second Amendment lawsuit against the City of New Orleans.

The National Rifle Association and the Second Amendment Foundation sued New Orleans, Mayor Ray Nagin and Police Superintendent Warren Riley last year to stop the confiscation of firearms from private citizens in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Judge Carl Barbier of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana on Wednesday denied the city's motion to dismiss the lawsuit -- and ordered the city to submit a response.

"We're encouraged by this latest ruling," said SAF founder Alan Gottlieb. "For almost a year, we've been fighting the city's delay tactics, which included outright lying by city officials that any firearms had been seized.

"Only when we threatened Mayor Nagin and Superintendent Riley with a motion for contempt did the city miraculously discover that they actually did have more than 1,000 firearms that had been taken from their owners."

The Second Amendment Foundation said the lawsuit is intended to protect the rights of New Orleans gun owners - and also to "make sure that this serves as a warning to public officials across the country to forget about seizing firearms from their law-abiding owners in the event of a natural or man-made disaster."

Gottlieb said the next step is to obtain an accurate inventory of all confiscated firearms the city is holding in two trailers.

"We're not going to rest until every one of those guns is back in the hands of its rightful owner, and the city understands that it cannot defy a federal court order, state law or the Louisiana and federal constitutional provisions that guarantee the individual right to keep and bear arms," he said.

Chris Cox of the National Rifle Association called Wednesday's ruling a "landmark victory" for law-abiding gun owners.

"Today's ruling sets the stage for a continued legal fight in which NRA will be forced to expend additional resources to fight back the anti-gunner's blatant and shameful attempts to ignore the Second Amendment."

Cox said the case will now move to discovery and pre-trial preparation.

According to the NRA, former New Orleans Police Chief Eddie Compass issued orders to confiscate firearms from all New Orleans residents in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, under a flawed state emergency powers law.

The NRA and SAF filed suit in federal court and won a preliminary injunction ending all the illegal gun confiscations. The groups later filed a motion for contempt, when the city failed to comply with an order that all seized firearms be returned to their rightful owners.

The NRA says only a few firearms have been returned to their rightful owners - because the New Orleans Police Department never notified gun owners how to claim their guns, and it turned away many gun owners, after setting impossible standards for proof of ownership.


See Earlier Stories:
New Orleans to Begin Returning Seized Firearms (17 April 2006)
NRA Tells Conservatives to 'Remember New Orleans' (13 Feb. 2006)


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TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Editorial; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: District of Columbia; US: Louisiana
KEYWORDS: banglist; katrina
Statement from Chris Cox on NRA's Lawsuit Against the City of New Orleans
1 posted on 08/17/2006 11:14:05 AM PDT by neverdem
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To: neverdem
Once these guns are returned to their owners, it will be very interesting to see if Mr. Gottleib can get New Orleans to purge their records, else every one of them will effectively have been registered.
2 posted on 08/17/2006 11:26:48 AM PDT by Carry_Okie (The fourth estate is the fifth column.)
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To: Joe Brower

ping


3 posted on 08/17/2006 11:48:28 AM PDT by King Prout (many complain I am overly literal... this would not be a problem if fewer people were under-precise)
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To: Carry_Okie

Private sales don't have to be reported to the gubmint, so everyone should sell and buy a new unit.


4 posted on 08/17/2006 11:52:55 AM PDT by Still Thinking (Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?)
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To: neverdem

What are the "impossible standards for proof of ownership"? That sounds interesting.


5 posted on 08/17/2006 11:53:49 AM PDT by Still Thinking (Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?)
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To: Still Thinking
What are the "impossible standards for proof of ownership"? That sounds interesting.

If your car wasn't registered, would you know your car's VIN?

6 posted on 08/17/2006 11:59:09 AM PDT by neverdem (May you be in heaven a half hour before the devil knows that you're dead.)
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To: neverdem

Maybe. I might if I thought I was ever going to need to know, but I wouldn't memorize it, I'd rely on having it written on paper or in the computer, so in the aftermath of Katrina with my paper and computer records destroyed, I wouldn't have a clue.


7 posted on 08/17/2006 12:16:11 PM PDT by Still Thinking (Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?)
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To: neverdem

i am going to be attending Tulane University in NOLA this fall and i know i would feel a hell of a lot safer if the average homeowner in New Orleans carried a gun. For the most part the people that returned to the city are the ones willing to work to restore it and their lives; these people aren't feeling especially tolerant of gangs and drug dealers, or anyone who threatens them, their children, or their neighborhoods, right now. The more upright citizens have guns in NOLA, the safer that place will be.


8 posted on 08/17/2006 1:10:52 PM PDT by verum ago (Proper foreign policy makes loud noises.)
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To: verum ago; weegee; Xenalyte

Most of the thugs in NOLA now live in Houston courtesy of their schmuck Mayor's "Christian charity."


9 posted on 08/17/2006 1:14:31 PM PDT by Clemenza (Now its dark...)
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To: Clemenza

Feelgood politics.

He was generous with the taxpayers' money extending charity but then he got huffy with the Feds weren't paying his bills.

Additionally I recall when he screamed into microphones that he was cancelling events at the George R. Brown (even though it would mean financial problems for people who had booked events there). He said "I dare you to sue".

And no one wanted to challenge this "compasionate leader". A leader who had no exit strategy except "term limit" and move away.


10 posted on 08/17/2006 1:27:12 PM PDT by weegee (Remember "Remember the Maine"? Well in the current war "Remember the Baby Milk Factory")
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To: verum ago; Clemenza

What Clemenza said . . . you're good, since all the thugs are now in my neighborhood, a state away from you.


11 posted on 08/17/2006 1:34:26 PM PDT by Xenalyte (No movie shall triumph over "Snakes on a Plane.")
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