FEMA Reconsidering Gun Ban at Trailer Park
by Dave Workman
Senior Editor
Spurred by inquiries from Gun Week, attorneys for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) were looking at a set of emergency shelter rules in Louisiana that include a prohibition on firearms to determine whether that ban is enforceable, and whether it squares with state law and both the state and federal constitutions.
FEMA spokesman Eugene “Butch” Kinerney confirmed to Gun Week that the regulations used to manage temporary housing sites in Louisiana had “not been reviewed by legal counsel.” He said the FEMA Office of General Counsel was reviewing the regulations and “will make whatever changes are necessary.”
The issue came to a head when the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) threatened legal action if the policy remained in place. It was subsequently reported that the National Rifle Association (NRA) was also threatening a lawsuit. If it comes to that, it would be the second time in the wake of Hurricane Katrina that SAF and NRA had teamed up to derail an anti-gun policy that disarmed citizens affected by the disastrous late-August storm.
Questions arose about management of the FEMA facilities, which are essentially areas in which trailers and recreational vehicles have been brought in and parked to provide makeshift living quarters for hundreds of people who lost their homes to Hurricane Katrina. When the “Lehrer News Hour” on PBS broadcast a segment about one such site outside Baker, LA, on the evening of Oct. 6, gun rights activists were quick to notice that Baker Mayor Harold Rideau told the reporter that no firearms were allowed.
He said if someone had a gun, they would be kicked out of the facility. It was a threat that he apparently had no authority to make, and no power to back up.
The interview set off a chain of events that had two attorneys involved in an on-going legal action by SAF and NRA against the mayor and police chief in New Orleans contacting Gun Week. Both insisted that the no-guns policy was a violation of Louisiana state law and its constitution, and the US Constitution.
Rideau told Gun Week that the gun ban was not his idea and that he really had no authority over the site—dubbed “FEMA City” by Baker-area residents—because it is outside his city limits. He further distanced himself from the policy, insisting that he is a gun rights supporter.
“I’m a member of the National Rifle Association,” Rideau said, with self-deprecating humor, “a paid-up member, too. I love to rabbit hunt. I’ve got to use a shotgun, because I can’t hit anything with a rifle; can’t hit anything with a shotgun, either.
“We certainly don’t want to give the impression we’re anti-gun because we’re not,” he insisted. “I’ve got guns all over my house.”
Rideau, who had been interviewed by the Lehrer Hour news team, suggested that the gun prohibition was established perhaps to prevent tragedies that might stem from frayed tempers among people who had been through what he called “probably the worst disaster this country’s ever seen. And with two hitting us back to back, I was waiting for somebody to pinch me and wake me up.”
“People are frustrated,” he added. “They’ve been living in a shelter for four weeks. We’re going to have domestic violence (so) you try to create an environment (that is safe).”
Kinerney provided a list of the FEMA park rules to Gun Week. Those guidelines tell tenants at the facilities that they will not be allowed to commit or allow crimes to be committed, that they do not play loud music or make other loud noises, drive fast, work on vehicles or allow pets to roam about unleashed.
But the rule on which everyone focused, after Rideau mentioned it prominently in his interview with the Lehrer crew, was a prohibition against storing or discharging firearms in the park.
Tenants who stay at FEMA City must sign an emergency shelter agreement that also sets out certain rules, but there is no rule banning possession of firearms on this agreement.
Kinerney acknowledged that the first set of rules read like those one might encounter at a state park because some of the emergency FEMA housing has actually been set up in state parks. There are several such sites around Louisiana, he said, and some individual units have apparently been moved into mobile home parks or RV parks. Because the devastation was so massive, and so many people were displaced, FEMA has had to utilize every kind of facility or open space it can find for these temporary shelter solutions.
However, it appears that no matter where they are set up, rules governing occupation of the temporary shelters cannot violate state laws. According to Steven Halbrook, one of the attorneys working with SAF and NRA on the New Orleans lawsuit, the policy “violates Louisiana preemption . . . not to mention the constitutional guarantee.”
Under Louisiana statutes, adopted in 1985, no political subdivision may adopt ordinances or regulations that are more restrictive than state law concerning the sale, purchase, possession, ownership, transfer, transportation, license, or registration of firearms.
However, the statute does allow for some regulation, and recognizes that political subdivisions can prohibit the possession of a firearm “in certain commercial establishments and public buildings.” Whether the FEMA housing units, which are essentially mobile, would technically be considered “public buildings” may be open to debate.
At press time, NRA and SAF attorneys were continuing to seek a permanent injunction against the confiscation of firearms from private citizens in New Orleans and surrounding parishes. The temporary restraining order, granted Sept. 23 by Federal District Judge Jay Zainey, barred the practice and ordered all seized firearms to be promptly returned.
The St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Department immediately began complying with the order, but New Orleans has claimed that it did not seize any firearms. Gun Week has learned that the attorneys have continued receiving reports from individuals who either had guns taken from them, or know of other individuals whose firearms were seized. Part of the problem is the lack of normal communications in the city and the difficulty in contacting individuals who have been affected.
As the case moves forward, there are reportedly some concerns that so-called unclaimed firearms might be disposed of. Under a New Orleans city ordinance, unclaimed firearms will be destroyed.
However, this may open something of a “Catch 22” type of scenario, because if the city claims it seized no firearms, then there should be no firearms that could be destroyed under this ordinance.
No court date for a hearing on the requested permanent injunction has yet been set. Attorneys say they are still in the discovery and investigation phase of their case.
How the New Orleans restraining order may relate to the “FEMA City” situation is unclear, since there does not appear to have been any outright seizure of firearms from anyone moving into those temporary “communities.”
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