CCRKBA Urges Probe of NO Confiscations
(Webmaster's Note: As we were preparing this issue for online, the Second Amendment Foundation lawsuit to stop the illegal seizure of firearms was successful. For more information, click here to read the SAF press release and look for all the details in the October 10 issue of GunWeek.)
by Gun Week Staff
The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA) has called for a federal investigation of firearms seizures in New Orleans after a video news clip showing an elderly woman being tackled and disarmed in her home by police was aired, and then widely circulated over the Internet.
In addition, CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb demanded that police immediately cease efforts to disarm law-abiding New Orleans residents, and provide a full accounting of all firearms seized, where they are being securely stored. He also wanted the police to explain how seized guns would be promptly returned to their rightful owners.
Incredibly, at the same time police were reportedly disarming New Orleans residents, actor Sean Penn, who is not even a resident of Louisiana, was photographed walking through the flooded streets of the Crescent City, carrying a pump shotgun.
Immediately after The New York Times and other news outlets reported that police were allegedly disarming citizens who refused to evacuate, CCRKBA began investigating the incidents. One such encounter has become almost legend, involving an elderly woman holding a revolver. She is shown verbally refusing to leave, and is then tackled by what appears to be a California Highway Patrol officer who was part of a contingent from the Golden State sent to help restore order in the city after its own police force simply became overwhelmed. Hundreds of New Orleans police officers turned in their badges, and in one of the more embarrassing news reports, two officers in uniform were shown in a store, apparently participating in the looting.
The Times quoted New Orleans Police Supt. P. Edwin Compass III insisting that no citizen in the city would be allowed to carry a handgun, rifle or shotgun.
“Only law enforcement are allowed to have weapons,” he stated.
Gun Week’s repeated calls to New Orleans police for comment and possible clarification were not returned.
The National Rifle Association (NRA) and Gun Owners of America (GOA) have also publicly slammed New Orleans authorities for seizing legal firearms and lawful residents.
“What we’ve seen in Louisiana—the breakdown of law and order in the aftermath of disaster—is exactly the kind of situation where the Second Amendment was intended to allow citizens to protect themselves,” said Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of NRA.
“Local authorities in New Orleans are turning nature’s assault on human life into man’s assault on human rights,” LaPierre said. “This attempt to repeal the Second Amendment should be condemned.”
“These confiscations will not make the people of New Orleans any safer,” said Erich Pratt, director of communications for GOA. “Privately owned firearms were the only thing which prevented good people from becoming victims in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, when few policemen were to be found anywhere in the city.”
In the wake of the disaster, it has been widely reported that armed citizens proved to be the only semblance of order and security in their neighborhoods. Numerous reports have surfaced about armed citizens discouraging looters in New Orleans and neighboring communities, and also in Mississippi, which was also hit hard by Hurricane Katrina in late August.
Tens of thousands of National Guard and federal troops, and hundreds of police officers from across the country, were brought to New Orleans to restore order. For days after the hurricane and subsequent dike failure, the city was in a state of anarchy. While there is plenty of blame to go around for the breakdown of order, some news agencies and writers are reporting that the city and state emergency plans were not followed.
In a public statement, Gottlieb demanded to know “under just what authority New Orleans officials are confiscating lawfully-owned firearms from law-abiding citizens. Where does it say that the state and federal Constitution can be nullified, even briefly, simply because of a hurricane? In every other natural disaster this country has ever faced, people retain their civil rights, including the right of self-defense, but New Orleans and Louisiana state officials have added the sin of arrogance to incompetence and negligence for which they must be held accountable when this is over.”
He further stated that when firearms are returned to their rightful owners, they should be in the same condition they were when taken.
Outrage was prompted by the film clip of the elderly woman being disarmed, yet it was not the only incident recorded. Other news footage showed an angry New Orleans attorney telling authorities that he had food, water and firearms, and he was not going to budge from his residence. Yet the other segment, of the older woman, was the more volatile.
“We know this is only one incident that is being replayed incessantly, and that not all the circumstances are known,” said CCRKBA Executive Director Joe Waldron, “but this incident, combined with statements by local officials, particularly Police Superintendent P. Edwin Compass III, that nobody but police will be allowed to have guns, demands a full and complete explanation to the American public. Visiting police and National Guardsmen are in New Orleans to help hurricane victims, and the nation is grateful beyond words. You don’t help people by violating their civil rights or the public trust.”
Gottlieb was furious over reports that some residents who had refused to leave had been disarmed anyway, “leaving them to the mercy of any lingering looters and thugs.” ABC News reported that as many as 10,000 people were refusing to be evacuated, and that Deputy Police Chief Warren Riley had also announced that, “No one will be able to be armed. We are going to take all the weapons.”
This was after it was reported that police and soldiers were seizing guns “for fear of confrontations with jittery residents who have armed themselves against looters.”
“If true, it is unconscionable. In the anarchy that reigned in the city for days, these armed citizens provided the only protection for their families, businesses and neighborhoods when many police walked off their jobs, and a few even participated in the looting, and the world knows it. The people responsible for making that decision should be immediately disciplined and relieved of command,” Gottlieb said.
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