Governors Pledge ‘No Quarter’ to Looters
by Dave Workman
Senior Editor
Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, a Republican, told reporters that he had authorized the National Guard and state police to be “ruthless with looters.”
Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco, a Democrat, told a news conference that she was sending National Guard troops into devastated New Orleans with orders to shoot-to-kill as a response to days of anarchy following Hurricane Katrina.
“These troops are . . . under orders to restore order in the streets,” Blanco said. “These troops know how to shoot and kill and they are more than willing to do so if necessary. . . .”
And Gun Week learned from one of the major firearms distributors, based in Baton Rouge about 75 miles north from New Orleans, that retail handgun sales in the immediate region had been brisk. That source, who asked not to be identified, said gun dealers in the Baton Rouge area were reporting that they could not keep their shelves stocked.
In the wake of devastation caused in Mississippi and Louisiana by Hurricane Katrina, it was not lost on gun activists how many of the citizens in the storm-ravaged areas were responding to reports of looting and lawlessness. In New Orleans, at one point, it was reported that even some police had engaged in looting, though as order appeared to return to the city—after virtually all residents had been moved out—police seemed to be regaining control.
According to the Reuters news agency, several armed citizens took to the flooded streets in New Orleans in an attempt to quell the looting, and at least one store owner had posted a sign on his business that simply read: “You loot, I shoot.”
The New York Times reported two incidents, one in which a homeowner fired over the heads of some thugs who demanded that he turn over his power generator to them, and another involving an armed businessman who wrestled a pair of bolt cutters away from a would-be looter who later returned to apparently threaten the man.
The New York Daily News also carried reports of armed citizens defending their property, businesses and their neighborhoods, against looters.
At the same time, other reports surfaced that several New Orleans police officers had turned in their badges. They had allegedly decided it was not worth the risk of taking gunfire from looters, after having lost their own homes and all they owned in the disaster, said one published report.
Reaction to that disclosure brought swift response from activists on at least one Internet website, KeepAndBearArms.com. In a forum on the disaster, gun activists held such officers in disdain and contempt.
Reports of looters taking firearms and ammunition from gun shops and sporting goods stores began surfacing within two days of the disaster that hammered New Orleans, Biloxi and other coastal cities and communities. At one point, it was reported that shots were even fired at rescue helicopters around the Super Dome, which housed thousands of hurricane survivors, and other reports indicated shots fired inside the dome. There were also reports of assaults and rapes in that facility.
The Associated Press (AP) also reported that “gangs of armed men” had roamed through New Orleans, where The Times-Picayune newspaper said the firearms section of a local Wal-Mart had been completely cleaned out. In Carrollton, people were shooting throughout the night on Aug. 30-31, and at least one looter shot another looter in the chaos.
To beef up law enforcement, additional police were dispatched into trouble spots, AP reported.
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