[Repost from rec.guns]

[rec.guns MODERATOR: You saw in yesterday's batch a mention of the NYTimes article about disarmament programs in New Orleans. Today's Washington Post has a piece (front page) about much the same thing, underscoring that it is US federal power being applied to transform armed and resourceful survivors into victims, at gunpoint. Federal police will accomplish what hurricane and flooding and looters could not. This is an unconscionable affront to the sensibilities of any citizen. Someone needs to make heads roll over this one, and that task should fall to either top leadership or, failing that, us, at the ballot box. ]

Troops Escalate Urgency of Evacuation

By Timothy Dwyer and Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, September 9, 2005; A01

NEW ORLEANS, Sept. 8 -- Outside Kajun's Pub, between the relatively dry French Quarter and the heavily flooded Ninth Ward, bar owner JoAnn Guidos loaded up her 1991 Ford Econoline van with clothing, liquor and other necessities Thursday morning. After holding out for 10 days, Guidos and her friends were finally leaving New Orleans and heading to high ground.

The beer was still cold, thanks to a working generator, and hopes for customers were strong as the flood-ravaged city fills with thirsty soldiers and emergency workers.

But on Wednesday night, Guidos said, armed federal agents identifying themselves as U.S. marshals confiscated her weapons and ordered her and six friends to leave by noon Thursday.

"When you get 15 M-16s pointed at you and they line you up against the wall, it's kind of scary," said Guidos, 55.

With floodwaters continuing to recede and cleanup efforts beginning in earnest, police and the military set out on an aggressive door-to-door campaign here Thursday, urging remaining residents to leave or be removed by force.

I don't know how but this must be stopped and now!

Sent letter to my congreeman (Mark Kennedy) and senators, will call Monday.

Maybe we should start a non-profit and start sending used firearms and ammunition to those law abiding citizens who have had their only means of self-defense taken from them. It's always nice to be able to do something to help.

I think another idea is keeping used firearms and giving THEM up when the ask for them. A junky old pump shotgun and a .22 revolver would be a cheap investment in providing a "satisfactory" handover.

And then to complete the paranoia, a 30-30 and a .45 wrapped in oilcloth and packed with a case of ammo and some dessicant in a sealed PVC pipe buried in your back yard or some other place.

I've also heard another good place to stash smaller items is wrapped well and suspended in the vent stack of your plumbing system. Downside is you have to get on the roof to stash and retrieve, upside is the likelihood of anyone finding them is real low.

You're just paranoid. It's not like our government is going door to door with machine guns making people surrender their guns...

Oh, wait, never mind.

Should never wait for an emergency. Whether it's a gun, spare tire, water, food,...

http://www.boston.com/news/weather/articles/2005/09/11/halted_gun_sales_infuriate_customers/

Let it be noted that despite Wal-Mart's folksy, red-state image, they're really just another tool of the plutocracy. Or the Red Chinese, depending on your perspective.

NRA weighs in.....NRA ILA

Disaster Can't Destroy Gun Rights

(Fairfax, VA) -- National Rifle Association leader Wayne LaPierre slammed New Orleans authorities Monday for seizing legal firearms from 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, " LaPierre said.

"When law enforcement isn't available, Americans turn to the one right that protects all the others - the right to keep and bear arms," LaPierre said. "This attempt to repeal the Second Amendment should be condemned."

The New York Times reported last Thursday that no civilians in New Orleans will be allowed to have guns, quoting the superintendent of police that "only law enforcement are allowed to have weapons."

A Louisiana state statute allows the chief law enforcement officer to "regulate possession" of firearms during declared emergencies. "But regulate doesn't mean confiscate," said Chris W. Cox, the NRA's chief lobbyist.

"Authorities are using that statute to do what the looters and criminals could not: disarm the law-abiding citizens of New Orleans trying to protect their homes and families," Cox said.

"The NRA will not stand idly by while guns are confiscated from law-abiding people who're trying to defend themselves," he said.

"We're exploring every legal option available to protect the rights of lawful people in New Orleans," Cox said, "and we're taking steps to overturn such laws in every state where they exist."

"Local authorities in New Orleans are turning nature's assault on human life into man's assault on human rights," LaPierre said. "Four million NRA members intend to stop this unconstitutional power grab."

--nra--

As Pakrat has already quoted:
Great. The LEO's will protect them.

Ok. You're walking down the street, when four ghouls intent on doing you bodily harm walk out of a side ally. Quick - call an LEO. He'll be right there. If you're lucky, and if they're not really busy, and if the LEO is REALLY fast, maybe you'll see him in 10-15 minutes. If you're lucky. (If you're Sean Penn, maybe they'll make it in five minutes.)

But with the four ghouls in front of you, I believe we've already established where your luck lay today. Oh well - at least you don't have one of those evil guns to worry about. Wait - the ghouls do? Is that fair? Can they do that?

If you wear a shirt or sign that states you ban weapons in your presence you will be safe

All well and good, and I'm sure they're being quite political, but I'd prefer to see more than a press release saying "we don't like that."

While I'm sure the "best" long-term solution is legislative action to repeal laws enabling "crisis" confiscation of guns (which you can be sure has never been applied to the wealthy or their mercenari), it's a long-term solution. And perhaps more difficult to accomplish than repealing laws requiring retreat in public (ala Florida's recent change), although perhaps Louisiana's situation will provide enough example of why confiscation is a bad, bad idea.

It would have been nice if they had gotten Bush (he is our "pro-RKBA" President, isn't he...?) to say something in his oh-so-folksy way chastising the NO/LA powers that be for their gun grabs. I find his silence on the topic to be somewhat indicitive of his plutocratic/patrician instincts.

Agree.... could have been stronger stance ......at least they finally said something