Quite often you’ll hear from gun controllers that some sort of universal firearms registration isn’t something we should be afraid of. Antis look down their noses at us and suggest that there’s no way the government would ever try to disarm the public–and so there’s no reason to worry about giving them a door by door shopping list of gun owners for federal and state agents to track down. There’s nothing to be concerned about, right? The government isn’t actually going to send out its agents to confiscate our guns, right? They’d never come around and grab them, especially not when we need them most…such as, say, during a natural disaster or massive public upheaval, right?
Ooooops.
Check out this website: www.givethemback.com
When the Katrina disaster unfolded, basic law enforcement and public services collapsed almost entirely. In reality, the only person you could really count on for your own personal well being was yourself. The idea that you can count entirely on agents of the state for your protection and the protection of your family was dealt a fatal blow in August of 2005. If ever there was a time when average working class people–black people, white people, hispanic people, all kinds of people–needed the means to protect themselves from unscrupulous characters, that was it.
And what did we see?
A local police chief ignoring the law and precedent, and unilaterally declaring that
“No one will be able to be armed. We will take all weapons. Only law enforcement will be allowed to have guns. All firearms, lawfully owned or not, will be seized.”
Nice, eh?
The link above recounts some of the stories of law abiding folks denied the means of self defense by agents of the state.
Gun confiscation will never happen, right? Sure. And gun controllers wonder why their registration schemes always meet with such resistance–even if their personal motives might be noble, the reality is that once the database of gun owners is built, unbuilding it is impossible, and it’s not that hard to imagine the powers that be deciding to use it for less than noble purposes.
While i do not agree with the new orleans police seizing any and all weapons during a time of chaos, particularly not the seizing of legally owned firearms, i dont know that i would fault the guy. He was abandoned by the government that was suppose to be supporting him and had a citizen revolt on scale where his officers were obscenely outnumbered and supplied. I might have done the same thing.
Comment by Dan — October 19, 2006 @ 2:41 pm
I suppose the biggest problem with that is that taking firearms from law abiding citizens does little to improve that very situation. Even in times of trial and travails, ASSuming that everyone is a criminal or potential criminal unless they have a badge is a BAD idea–especially given how many LEOs down there forgot their sworn oaths and became just as bad as the crooks.
The job a police chief is facing in a situation like that is indeed tough, but law abiding citizens who can protect themselves and thereby PREVENT crimes are helpful, not harmful. Taking law enforcement action against people preemptively, Minority Report style, because of crimes you *think* they might commit is the very antithesis of democracy. There are no provisions in the COTUS that say “you can’t defend your family when the streets are flooded and half of the NO Police Dept is down the road looting the WalMart.”
I think the largest point here is that, in point of fact, gun confiscation in times of trouble DOES happen, no matter what the Bradyites will tell you to the contrary. Now that we’ve seen it happen, no self respecting gun owner–LEO or not–can pretend that it can’t happen here…because it has indeed happened.
Comment by Administrator — October 19, 2006 @ 8:10 pm
All officals that violated their sworn oath should lose their job, be fined and serve a long jail time.
Comment by George H Carter — October 24, 2006 @ 10:49 am
Dan,
I have to very strongly disagree. The NOPD were NOT outnumbered and running out of supplies and they were NOT facing a citizen revolt. Only AFTER the NOPD got reinforcements in the form of National Guard troops and outta state LEOs did they begin going door to door confiscating guns. A lot of people had already been evacuated, and it was those determined to remain in their homes who were being disarmed and coerced into leaving.
Comment by Ken Grubb — October 26, 2006 @ 12:52 pm
The NOPD was a great study in contrasts–you had heroic efforts by some, and amazing dereliction of duty from others. It’s a shitty job in the only state in the union that keeps Maryland from being the most violent of all US states year in and year out, and it’s largely thankless–so those guys who stuck it out and did the right thing should be commended.
But goddamnit if cops–with the backing of the Federales–going door to door snatching guns isn’t *EXACTLY* what Wayne LaPierre has been warning us about for decades. Remember that next time some anti suggests to you that the feds aren’t coming for your guns–because there a few hundred folks in Louisiana who might take issue with that.
Comment by Administrator — October 26, 2006 @ 1:58 pm