NRA asks nation's local officials to pledge not to confiscate guns in emergencies
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by John Hartzell, Associated Press
May 19, 2006
MILWAUKEE -- Alarmed by the way authorities confiscated guns in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, the National Rifle Association called on all police chiefs and mayors Thursday to sign a pledge they will never forcibly disarm law-abiding citizens.
"Mayors and police chiefs have already sworn to uphold the Constitution of the United States in their oaths of office. So signing this pledge should be just as effortless," said Wayne LaPierre, NRA executive vice president, a day before the 4 million-member group opens its annual convention in Milwaukee.
The nation's most powerful gun lobbying group also said it would support state and federal legislation making it a crime to forcibly disarm law-abiding citizens.
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Police and soldiers also seized numerous guns for fear of confrontations with jittery residents who have armed themselves against looters.
"No-one will be able to be armed. We are going to take all the weapons."
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"We need this legislation because Katrina blew a hole in the Constitution that will continue to hemorrhage until we stop it," said Chris W. Cox, an NRA lobbyist.
After Katrina hit New Orleans, police and soldiers confiscated guns from some evacuees and removed them from homes. Police said they took only guns that had been stolen or found in abandoned homes.
In April, officials began returning some of the weapons after being sued by the NRA and other groups that claimed the confiscations took away people's means of protection amid the lawlessness that broke out in the storm's aftermath.
A spokeswoman for the New Orleans Police Department said the agency's superintendent, Warren Riley, was not available for comment Thursday on the NRA's campaign. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin's office referred calls for comment to the Police Department.
Peter Hamm, spokesman for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, said the nation doesn't need the NRA's campaign.
"This is a non-problem in America, and for the NRA to be waving their arms and screaming that the people are about to have their firearms taken away, it's sheer nonsense," he said.
Jim Couri, a spokesman for the National Association of Chiefs of Police, said his organization is opposed to gun confiscations.
A recent poll of its members showed that 92.4 percent of them supported allowing law-abiding citizens to obtain a firearm for sporting use or self-defense, he said.
In Milwaukee, Deputy Police Chief Brian O'Keefe said his department does not have the time or the resources to go after law-abiding citizens with firearms.
"The rhetoric to say we are going to disarm law-abiding citizens is a little over the top," he said.
Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett said rather than sign the NRA's pledge, he would rather meet with the group's officials to talk about preventing gun violence.
LaPierre said when Katrina hit, having a firearm provided some comfort to Gulf Coast residents.
"Katrina became the proving ground for what law-abiding citizens and others have always imagined: that government bureaucrats would throw the Bill of Rights out the window and declare freedom to be whatever they say it is," he said.
"When the Second Amendment is only as good as your mayor or police chief says it is, the NRA must take action."
As originally published
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There's much more than this at Unknown News.
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Commentary by Helen & Harry Highwater:
I wonder what such a pledge is really worth... but local officials who won't even pay lip service to the Second Amendment ought to be booted out of office.
New Orleans Police now deny that guns were confiscated in the aftermath of last year's flood, but that's what lip service means.
News reports at the time -- and a direct quote from then-deputy, now-chief Warren Riley -- seem to suggest that guns were indeed confiscated from law-abiding citizens.
"No-one will be able to be armed." That's sickening, coming from a police official.
If you believe in the Bill of Rights, as we do, that dang well includes the right to bear arms. Take that right away, and all the other rights are based solely on hope and faith.
Because really, what the hell have you got, without the right to defend yourself?
Helen & Harry
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