No Second Amendment in New Orleans
By Montag | Related entries in Hurricane KatrinaIs it ok to suspend the Bill of Rights in an emergency situation?
In this case — reported last Friday by the New York Times — it’s the Second Amendment.
Mr. Compass, the police superintendent, said that after a week of near anarchy in the city, no civilians in New Orleans will be allowed to carry pistols, shotguns, or other firearms of any kind. “Only law enforcement are allowed to have weapons,” he said.
That order apparently does not apply to the hundreds of security guards whom businesses and some wealthy individuals have hired to protect their property. The guards, who are civilians working for private security firms like Blackwater, are openly carrying M-16s and other assault rifles.
New York Times: Police Begin Seizing Guns of Civilians
This entry was posted on Monday, September 12th, 2005 and is filed under Hurricane Katrina. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
September 12th, 2005 at 7:43 am
I read that a lot of the private security guards (Blackwater?), hired by Federal agencies, were deputized (permitting them to carry weapons and shoot looters).
September 12th, 2005 at 9:30 am
If ever there was a reason to bolster and applaud our 2nd Amendment rights in this country it is in light of a natural/manmade disaster like New Orleans. In fact, innocent law-abiding citizens have protected their families, homes and businesses from roving bands of lawless idiots because, and only because, they have been armed. When a vast number of the police disappear like David Copperfield, leaving the city and surrounding areas without governmental protection, it is natural law that people have a right to defend the roots and meaning of their freedom: 1) family 2) home-property 3) movement, to name a few. The Second Amendment protects all of our other rights which we hold so dearly. Anarchy is not the result of guns. Guns are the cure to anarchy, restoring order, civilization and basic human courtesy. The anti-gun movement has been shot dead in this country — good riddance to this tentacle of nannyism. And if it rears its arrogance, misguided head again, the mantra should be: VIVA’ THE FRENCH QUARTER — which has remained fairly well in tact (even putting on the Annual South Decadence Parade) because of wise people who prepared for an inevitable day that would include personal protection. God, I love this country and its people. Lets try to salvage the constitution from the neo-con cabal in this administration.