John Lott's Website: Has the New Orleans Police Chief Learned Nothing from Last Year?

6/04/2006

Has the New Orleans Police Chief Learned Nothing from Last Year?

Gun rights activists were up in arms Friday after New Orleans Police Chief Warren Riley said he would confiscate weapons should disaster strike.

Frederick Thomas, from New Orleans, leaves New Orleans Police with his semi-automatic pistol that was confiscated in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans on Monday April 17, 2006.

The chief’s comments came after a federal lawsuit forced the city to return hundreds of firearms that were seized in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

In an interview with WWL Radio, Riley said his officers would seize guns from people on the streets if another storm was to hit New Orleans. . . .

7 Comments:

saturdaynightspecial said...: This is why government is your worst enemy; worse than any mugger, rapist, murderer, vicious animal or terrorist. Because the government will do anything to leave you vulnerable to harm; because the government got over 52,000 Americans killed during Viet Nam - government can get more people killed than criminals or vicious animals. It is a reason to eliminate the DEA, BATF, NSA, CIA and to cut in half the size of every police force in America, and allow every citizen complete access to weapons, then we can do, without interference, what no police force can do - protect ourselves from harm.; 6/04/2006 6:48 AM
Anonymous said...: What can you expect from a city who re-elected Nagin?; 6/04/2006 9:02 PM
Anonymous said...: Clearly, he did learn something: There were no consequences of consequence (pardon the pun) for acting as he did.

My bet is that there will be none the next time around, either.

The sad truth is that our justice system doesn’t work very well.

Robert Ferguson, Ph.D.
NRA Certified Instructor; 6/04/2006 9:12 PM
John Lott said...: I agree. They did learn that there were few political costs to doing what they did. I thought that the state government in Louisiana had passed some bill to prevent this type of action in the future.; 6/04/2006 9:16 PM
Anonymous said...: An armed government official seeks to deprive you of your rights, in violation of a law that was passed to specifically prohibit such behavior.

Citizen patriots at Lexington and Concord faced a similar situation, except that they were protecting militia arms that were gathered in order to resist Britain, their legal authority.

New Orleans residents just want to protect themselves. When the cops come, I hope they do.; 6/05/2006 8:00 AM
Anonymous said...: I also thought they had passed a bill preventing confiscations. But I searched Louisiana's State Legislature website and found the history of HB760.

It says the bill has been enrolled and signed by the Speaker of the House, and also signed by the President of the Senate. I'm guessing it's on its way to the governor's desk.; 6/05/2006 2:04 PM
saturdaynightspecial said...: "New Orleans residents just want to protect themselves. When the cops come, I hope they do"

Amen to that...first time I 've heard such beautiful rhetoric...thanks for writing it.; 6/06/2006 5:45 PM