Gunbanobama

The NRA Political Victory Fund is in full swing trying to educate gun owners about the stakes in the upcoming presidential election. If you are a gun owner, it is time to start educating yourself, your friends, neighbors and acquaintances. Never has there been a greater threat to the cherished rights of gun owners than the Obama/Biden ticket. Whether you are a lifetime NRA member, or whether you think the NRA has forsaken us all in the past, it's time for all gun owners to come together, and work together to protect the second amendment.

Send your friends to Gunbanobama. Go there yourself. Knowledge is the first step to applying the power of the ballot effectively.

Missing Something?

The National Rifle Association has hired private investigators to find hundreds of people whose firearms were seized by city police in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, according to court papers filed this week. The NRA is trying to locate gun owners for a federal lawsuit that the lobbying group filed against Mayor Ray Nagin and Police Superintendent Warren Riley over the city's seizure of firearms after the Aug. 29, 2005, hurricane.

In the lawsuit, the NRA and the Second Amendment Foundation claim the city violated gun owners' constitutional right to bear arms and left them "at the mercy of roving gangs, home invaders, and other criminals" after Katrina. The NRA says the city seized more than 1,000 guns that weren't part of any criminal investigation after the hurricane. Police have said they took only guns that had been stolen or found in abandoned homes.

NRA lawyer Daniel Holliday said investigators have identified about 300 of the gun owners and located about 75 of them. Some of them could be called to testify during a trial, he added. "Finding these folks has been a nightmare," Holliday said. "That is really the guts of our case — to establish that there was indeed a pattern of the police going out and taking people's guns without any legal reason to do so."

In April 2006, police made about 700 firearms available for owners to claim if they could present a bill of sale or an affidavit with the weapon's serial number. An attorney for the city and a police department spokesman didn't return a reporter's telephone calls Wednesday.

Alan Gottlieb, founder of the Bellevue, Wash.-based Second Amendment Foundation, said the police department has returned only about 100 of the 1,000 seized guns. "Obviously, we don't expect the city to find everybody. We only wanted to see a good-faith effort, and that's what the city didn't do," Gottlieb added. "It's a bad example to let them get away with it."

In court papers filed Monday, NRA attorneys say finding the gun owners has been difficult because the storm has scattered so many residents. New Orleans had an estimated 455,000 residents before Katrina, but less than two-thirds of that number live there now. The NRA is asking for a delay in the trial, set to begin Feb. 19, saying they need more time to find gun owners. U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier had not yet ruled on the request Wednesday.

By Michael Kunzelman, Associated Press Writer

Uncle Sam's Shooting Gallery: 100 Years

Camp Perry has been the host of the NRA sponsored National Rifle Matches since 1907. These are considered by many to be the "World Series of the Shooting Sports", drawing shooters of all types to compete in many different types of competition.

Back in 1940, this article in "Popular Science" declared:

TRAVELING in planes, trains, buses, private cars, trucks, and even on foot, more than 10,000 eager men, women, and youngsters from all corners of the nation will head toward the shores of Lake Erie in mid-August for the largest sporting event in the world. The lure that draws this myriad of bankers, housewives, G-men, clerks, police, shopkeepers, and citizens from practically every other walk of life, is the annual National Rifle Matches sponsored jointly by the U. S. War Department and the National Rifle Association.

In this mammoth gunpowder rodeo, millions of rounds of ammunition will be fired from pistols, .30 caliber rifles, and smallbore guns. Police will school themselves in getting the jump on criminals. Hundreds of beginners will learn how to shoot and how to handle guns safely. Marksmanship records will be assaulted, historic trophies won, and national champions crowned. And at the end of the three-week bullet jubilee, a new group of straight-shooting citizens will scatter to their homes to add to the defensive power of the nation and to the worldwide reputation of the United States as a country of crack shots.

The shooting starts August 18 at the Army’s Camp Perry, a few miles from the lake town of Port Clinton, Ohio. Nowhere else in the world, experts state, is there a rifle and pistol range that can compare with it. Here, stretched out side by side for two and a half miles, are target ranges of every size from 1,000 yards for .30 caliber rifle competition to twenty-five yards for pistol events. And around the fringe of the ranges is a far-flung city of tents to house the extensive Army personnel required to run the matches, and also to accommodate practically all the contestants and visitors.

For the matches are open to any citizen of the United States, and the Army will put up any American who wants to compete. Tents, beds, and bedding are supplied without charge, while a mammoth cafeteria serves meals at low prices. For the rifle or pistol fan who would like to bring his family, the “Squaw Camp,” a part of the reservation next to the bathing beach, is set aside. Here a man and his wife can have a floored, screened tent, with electricity, for $1.50 a day. Bringing junior along adds just fifteen cents a day to the tent cost.

And you don’t even have to own a gun, for the Army will issue you a .30 caliber rifle, or a .45 caliber pistol, and furnish all the ammunition you’ll need for match firing. If you’ve never fired a rifle, a competent Army instructor will show you how.

In addition to the vanguard of individual contestants, the Perry meet will attract civilian rifle and pistol teams from every state in the union, plus teams representing the National Guard, metropolitan police forces, the U. S. Army, Coast Guard, and Marine Corps, the Customs Service, the White House police, G-men, and other state and Federal agencies. Last year, almost 5,000 persons competed, firing a total of more than 3,000,000 shots.

Step out on the range when the matches get under way and you’ll see a sight that you’ll never forget. With the roar of service rifles in your ears, you will gape at a two-mile line of fire. Crack marksmen, lying prone, are battering bullseyes 1,000 yards away. Down the line, under the watchful eyes of soldiers and officers, civilians are getting their first chance at firing the new Garand semiautomatic rifle recently adopted by the Army.

Group by group, all along the firing line, the nation’s greatest shots, together with the dubs and rank tyros, are standing, sitting, kneeling, and lying prone, shooting rifles, pistols, and revolvers at various ranges, in timed-fire, rapid-fire, and slow-fire matches. Playing a sharpshooter’s swing tune, bullets whistle through the air and zing into the targets, or occasionally kick up a spatter as they miss the target and plow into the waters of Lake Erie beyond the butts.

Strolling down back of the firing line, or sighting along the pits behind the targets, you’ll marvel at the horde of Army officers and men needed to conduct all phases of the competition. You’ll note target spotters, range officers, scorers, checkers, computers, and messengers. In the pits, the trench back of the butts, you’ll watch enlisted men haul targets down from their racks in the line of fire, for checking, repair, and replacement.

Officials estimate that fifteen Army men are required for each ten contestants in order to run the matches in the smooth, efficient, and safe manner for which the meet is famed. An indication of how Army supervision makes for safety is found in the fact that only two casualties have coccurred in twenty-one years of match firing at Camp Perry.

Down at the left of the range, you’ll witness one of the most interesting phases of the Perry matches—the National Police School, where representatives from police departments in all sections of the country are schooled in the latest methods of police science, and sent back home as qualified instructors to their fellow officers in the home forces. Subjects studied in the full-week course include disarming an attacker, shooting at rapidly disappearing targets, using tear gas and the Thompson submachine gun, hand-to-hand fighting, and the fundamentals of jujutsu.

Here at the Police School is the famous “Hogan’s Alley,” a curious group of backless building fronts representing the dilapidated frame structures lining one side of the main street of Bucktown Gulch, Ariz., as it appeared in 1879. By means of a series of hand levers and attached cables, silhouette figures are popped suddenly into the window or door openings of “Bud Peagler’s Pool Parlor,” or the “Wa-hiawa Cafe,” while police try to drill them with pistol bullets before they disappear two seconds later.

Nearby is a replica of the rear of an automobile. Traveling on an overhead trolley, it speeds away as police fire at it in attempts to “blow” a rear tire. Similar in operation is a running-man target, which crosses the officers’ line of fire at an angle from left to right.

The value of this police training is dramatically revealed by the experience of the Detroit, Mich., police who have sent representatives ,to the school for years. When they first started, an average of four policemen lost their lives for every criminal killed in Detroit. Today, the average is one policeman to every eleven criminals.

At the opposite end of the range from the Police School, you run across hundreds of youngsters from eight to eighteen, some of whom will shoot it out for the junior championship of the nation, and some of whom are barely big enough to hoist a rifle to their shoulders. A U. S. Marine is assigned to each of these neophytes to give him expert instruction in the rudiments of rifle shooting and gun handling. Before the youngster comes out from under the wing of his leatherneck guide, he will have learned not only how to shoot a gun and handle it safely, but also how to clean it, take it apart, and put it back together again.

Truly a giant training ground for the development of the art of shooting, in all its phases from the instruction of future sharpshooters to the rewarding of record-breaking feats of marksmanship, the annual Camp Perry meet has had much to do with the establishment of shooting as one of the most popular American sports. And now, with national defense of primary importance, Perry’s influence may prove to have been of even greater value than that of a clean, wholesome sport in building up the armed might of the United States.

My, how things have changed! Or have they?

NRA Publications Suspends Ties to Jim Zumbo

NRA Publications Suspends Ties to Jim Zumbo

(FAIRFAX, VA) – The following statement was issued by the National Rifle Association of America.

Comments expressed by outdoor writer Jim Zumbo reflect neither the opinions of the National Rifle Association and America’s gun owners, nor are they an accurate portrayal of facts in regard to semi-automatic firearms lawfully owned by millions of citizens. Therefore, NRA Publications has suspended its professional ties with Mr. Zumbo.

The ensuing wave of grassroots response in support of the Second Amendment is a clear indication that America’s gun owners will act swiftly and decisively to counter falsehoods or misrepresentations perpetuated by any member of the media – whether it is one of the major networks or a fellow gun owner.

That depth of feeling and the unanimity of the response from the nation’s firearms owners sends a message to the new Congress. It says that millions of people understand the issue of semi-autos and will resist with an immense singular political will any attempts to create a new ban on semi-automatic firearms.

At the root of this grassroots response is the basic truth that ‘gun control merely makes the innocent pay the price for the guilty’ and our folks fully understand that their rights are at stake. It says that for the enemies of the Second Amendment there is no chance that the kind of divide and conquer propaganda strategy which preceded the 1994 ban on semi-auto firearms will ever succeed again.

It is our hope that Mr. Zumbo will use his energy and talent to help preserve our Second Amendment, America’s First Freedom, by ensuring that no one else falls prey to the tragic demonization of gun owners.

Ray Nagin Found in Contempt of Court

News Flash from the NRA:

The National Rifle Association (NRA) and law abiding gun owners have won yet another victory this morning against New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and former police chief Warren Riley.

Judge Carl J. Barbier, presiding over the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, granted NRA's motion for contempt against New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and Warren Riley for "failure to provide initial disclosures and to compel answers to discovery" during NRA's injunction against the City for their illegal gun confiscation of law abiding citizens following Hurricane Katrina in 2006.

"Once more, Mayor Ray Nagin and former police chief Warren Riley are held accountable for considering themselves above the law," said Chris W. Cox, NRA's chief lobbyist. "These men have had to be dragged, kicking and screaming, every step of the way in this process to return the lawfully owned firearms to their own citizens, and Judge Barbier rightly found them in contempt of court for their complete lack of respect for the rule of law."

Furthermore, Judge Barbier concluded the delaying tactics by the City's attorney, Joseph Vincent DiRosa, Jr, to be "wholly unprofessional and shall not be condoned". Mr. DiRosa admitted in Court that he had "no good reason" to explain his actions and has been ordered to pay partial legal fees to NRA's attorneys for their wasted time and money.

"Ray Nagin, Warren Riley and their attorney refused to provide vital information to the U.S. District Court for their unconstitutional acts in their city's time of great need," concluded Cox. "On behalf of the lawful gun owners of New Orleans, NRA is pleased with this outcome, we thank Judge Barbier for his swift decision and we will continue to press for the full return of all the city's confiscated firearms."

Give Them Back!

The NRA is asking for donations to help fund the fight specifically to force the return of legally owned, illegally confiscated firearms in New Orleans after hurricane Katrina. Over one thousand firearms are still being held by New Orleans police in a doublewide trailer. Owners are showing up with serial numbers and receipts, and still, their guns are not being returned.

Go to GiveThemBack.com to learn more and make your contribution. The video evidence of these confiscations is now available, containing much more footage and testimony than has ever been released before. If you think you have seen the extent of this constitutional rape, you are wrong. You have only seen the tip of the iceberg! A DVD documenting these illegal confiscations, as well as the NRA response will be shipped for donations at or above $30.

NOLA Gun Confiscation Town Hall Meeting

The NRA will be holding a special Town Hall Meeting in New Orleans next week to spotlight and document the plight of the city’s law abiding residents, who were forced to surrender their legally owned firearms in the chaotic aftermath of hurricane Katrina.

Residents who were victims of this injustice are encouraged to attend the meeting and share their stories. This is an opportunity to tell NRA what the City of New Orleans did to trample your Second Amendment rights when you needed them most. NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre, and NRA-ILA Executive Director Chris W. Cox will host the Town Hall Meeting. Be sure to come out and tell them your story. The Meeting will take place on Tuesday, April 18, at 7:00 p.m., at the New Orleans Marriott Hotel, Salons D & E, 555 Canal Street, New Orleans. For more information please call (877) 292-3637.

THE Gun Story of 2005

Apparently overshadowed by a parade of Creole loonies gnashing teeth and pointing fingers before Congress and fears of FEMA trailers harboring wanton sex offenders, lies the story of hurricaine Katrina, the gun story of 2005, and quite possibly the greatest oversight of constitional rape our country has ever witnessed. I am writing, of course, about the New Orleans Gun Grab Saga.

In September, 2005, somebody gave law enforcement officers orders to confiscate legally owned firearms from New Orleans homeowners. Homeowners who had broken no laws, threatened no person, and who desperately needed those guns for self defense were the target of this confiscation edict. The big question that gun owners had pondered for years was finally answered. When given the order to seize weapons and trample on the US Constitution, many officers did not question the legality of the order. Instead, they willingly carried it out. Armed peace officers entered private homes like storm troopers, forced citizens to the floor, seized their only means of protection, and then loaded those defenseless citizens in military trucks for processing and shipment elsewhere. The unknown answer to the most fearful question was supplied to gun owners by the very actions of the officials involved. Undeniable actions yielded an undeniable answer. Yes, armed law enforcement officials will act on illegal orders from God knows where if the order is given a cloak of authority. Gun owners can no longer trust law enforcement to abide by the US Constitution over an illegal edict declared by rats who will later run and hide any trace of having given the order. Innocence was lost in New Orleans. Reality was seen.

Edwin Compass, disgraced NOLA police chief, has resigned. Compass was quoted as stating, "Only law enforcement are allowed to have weapons." The rumors surrounding Compass' strange resignation were exposed graft, phantom officers, and a host of other shenanigans, but not a damned thing was said about crapping on the US Constitution.

Compass' second in command, Warren Riley, who now commands the NOLA police force as an interim commissioner, was quoted as saying "No one will be able to be armed. We are going to take all the weapons." Riley is still running the NOLA department. His stand against the US Constitution has not been questioned. His reward was promotion.

The source of the illegal gun confiscation order has been obscured. Not surprisingly, in documents filed in federal court in Baton Rouge, La., New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, Police Chief Edwin Compass and St. Tammany Sheriff Jack Strain denied ordering the confiscation of firearms. Governor Kat Blanco is not widely suspected of giving the illegal order. The possibility of Blanco's involvement is covered up by a huge blanket of incompetence thoughout the entire disaster, and beyond.

The illegal confiscations of legally owned firearms, in the wake of the greatest natural disaster we have faced as a nation, have been ignored by the mainstream media. It has fallen off the radar on gun forums. Bloggers have let it be swept under the rug. Gun magazines write glowing reviews about the latest advertised firearm. Yesterday, at a gun counter in Louisiana, I heard doubts that these confiscations ever occured. When Bubba doesn't believe, we are all in trouble! The fact is, these acts DID happen, they were not isolated incidents, and when ordered to seize weapons from disaster victims, many police officers donned their body armor, fired up their tactical vehicles, and willingly obliged.

The United States District Court for the Eastern District in Louisiana agreed with the National Rifle Association (NRA) and issued a restraining order to bar further gun confiscations from peaceable and law-abiding citizens in New Orleans.

Attorneys have been hired to prosecute those involved.

Wayne LaPierre has vowed to make this issue the flagship issue in getting legislation passed to prevent this kind of constitutional desecration from occuring at any other time in the future.

Wayne LaPierre even gave gun owners a rallying cry....Remember New Orleans. He said, "With your help, the National Rifle Association is going to make sure it never happens again. We're going to go state-by-state and change every state law that has some type of emergency powers statute that allows authorities to regulate or confiscate guns from law-abiding citizens when an emergency is declared ...

The example of New Orleans is going to become the worst fear of those who want to ban guns in the good old U.S.A. Never again can the anti-gunners claim that honest citizens don't need firearms because the police and the government are going to be there to protect you ...

And we've got a good slogan that you're going to hear from one end of the country to the other. And that slogan is: Remember New Orleans ...

The next time anyone says to you: 'Are you just afraid or paranoid?' Look them straight in the eye and say: Remember New Orleans.

If they ask you, 'Why does anyone need to own a gun?' Remember New Orleans.

If they say to you, "Why does anyone need a high-capacity magazine?" Look them straight in the eye and say: Remember New Orleans.

What's wrong with a 15-day waiting period? Remember New Orleans.

What makes you think the government would ever confiscate your gun? Remember New Orleans.

Is the second amendment relevant in the 21st Century? Remember New Orleans.

That's our battle cry and let's never, ever let them forget it.”


It's shameful that many gun owners themselves, in four short months, have forgotten. It's disgraceful that some gun owners are actually in denial. It's time to kick your gun owning friends in the ass and get this damned mule train rolling again! The NRA cannot get legislation passed without our support. If we forget, our cause is lost.

These events could be the seminal force for greatest strides in gun owner rights in US history. Do not let the bastards take that possibility away from us! Do NOT forget New Orleans!

LaPierre's complete speech

New Orleans Gun Grab Saga

The Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) and National Rifle Association (NRA) joined with individual gun owners in Louisiana this morning, filing a motion in United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana seeking a temporary restraining order to stop authorities in and around the City of New Orleans from seizing firearms from private citizens in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Arbitrary gun seizures, without warrant or probable cause, have been reported during the past three weeks since the Crescent City was devastated by the hurricane. In cases reported to SAF, police refused to give citizens receipts for their seized firearms. Earlier, SAF insisted that police account for all seized firearms, disclose their whereabouts, and explain how they will be returned to their rightful owners. Authorities have not responded.

Gun confiscations have been highly publicized since the New York Times quoted New Orleans Police Superintendent P. Edwin Compass III, who said, "Only law enforcement are allowed to have weapons," and ABC News quoted Deputy Police Chief Warren Riley stating, "No one will be able to be armed. We are going to take all the weapons."

For example, a San Francisco, CA camera crew from KTVU filmed one incident in which visiting California Highway Patrol officers tackled an elderly woman identified as Patricia Konie, to seize her pistol and forcibly remove her from her home. An ABC news crew accompanying an Oklahoma National Guard unit filmed another incident in which homeowners were handcuffed and disarmed, then released but without their firearms.

"We are delighted to work jointly with the NRA in an effort to bring these outrageous gun seizures to a halt," said SAF founder Alan M. Gottlieb. "Our inquiries about these confiscations were cavalierly ignored, as were our demands for a public explanation from the police and city officials about why citizens were being unlawfully disarmed, leaving them defenseless against lingering bands of looters and thugs.

"New Orleans officials left us with no recourse," Gottlieb observed. "It was bad enough that Big Easy residents were victims of the worst natural disaster in the nation's history. That they would be subsequently victimized by their own local government, taking their personal property without warrant, is unconscionable. These illegal gun seizures must be stopped, now."

Link

Both the NRA and SAF want to speak with people who had guns confiscated.
In preparation for further lawsuits over gun confiscations both groups are looking for people who actually had guns confiscated. If you have personally had a gun confiscated in Louisiana since Hurricane Katrina hit, please call (888) 414-6333. Be prepared to leave only your name and immediate contact information so we can get back to you. Once again, they are seeking contact information from actual victims of gun confiscation in Louisiana only.
Contact SAF via e-mail at safalert@liberty.seanet.com. Please be ready to provide them with your full name, address, current working telephone number and the date and time of the firearm(s) seizure, as well as any other pertinent information.

Update: Friday, September 23, 2005 4:37PM

Victory!

The United States District Court for the Eastern District in Louisiana today sided with the National Rifle Association (NRA) and issued a restraining order to bar further gun confiscations from peaceable and law-abiding victims of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. “This is a significant victory for freedom and for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. The court’s ruling is instant relief for the victims who now have an effective means of defending themselves from the robbers and rapists that seek to further exploit the remnants of their shattered lives,” said NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre.

Joining LaPierre in hailing the U.S. District Court decision was NRA chief lobbyist Chris W. Cox. “This is an important victory. But the battle is not over. The NRA will remedy state emergency statutes in all 50 states, if needed, to ensure that this injustice does not happen again."

The controversy erupted when The New York Times reported, the New Orleans superintendent of police directed that no civilians in New Orleans will be allowed to have guns and that “only law enforcement are allowed to have weapons.” ABC News quoted New Orleans’ deputy police chief, saying, “No one will be able to be armed. We are going to take all the weapons.” The NRA also pledged that it will continue its work to ensure that every single firearm arbitrarily and unlawfully seized under this directive is returned to the rightful law-abiding owner.

We can stop and celebrate, but the work is not over. Mr. Nagin, Mr. Compass, and Mr. Riley have a little thing called RS14:134 to read up on with their advisors. Have fun!

In preparation for further lawsuits over gun confiscations the NRA and SAF are looking for people who actually had guns confiscated. If you have personally had a gun confiscated in Louisiana since Hurricane Katrina hit, please call (888) 414-6333. Be prepared to leave only your name and immediate contact information so we can get back to you. Once again, they are seeking contact information from actual victims of gun confiscation in Louisiana only.
Contact SAF via e-mail at safalert@liberty.seanet.com. Please be ready to provide them with your full name, address, current working telephone number and the date and time of the firearm(s) seizure, as well as any other pertinent information.

Update: Saturday, September 24, 2005 2:04PM

The Roaches Scatter

Yesterday, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana issued a temporary restraining order on behalf of the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) and National Rifle Association (NRA), bringing an end to firearm seizures from citizens living in and around New Orleans. District Judge Jay Zaney issued the restraining order against all parties named in a lawsuit filed Thursday by SAF and NRA. Defendants in the lawsuit include New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and Police Chief Edwin Compass III. News reports quoted Compass as saying that only law enforcement officials would be allowed to have firearms and Deputy Chief Warren Riley as saying, "We are going to take all the weapons." Wayne LaPierre of the National Rifle Association, states his group documented 30 to 40 cases of people having their weapons illegally confiscated by law enforcement after Hurricaine Katrina hit Aug. 29. The location and disposition of these weapons is being sought, as well as civil and criminal charges against those who instituted the acts of confiscation.

Not surprisingly, in documents filed in federal court in Baton Rouge, La., New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, Police Chief Eddie Compass and St. Tammany Sheriff Jack Strain deny ordering the confiscation of firearms. To wit:

Defendants, C. Ray Nagin, Mayor of New Orleans and P. Edwin Compass, III, Superintendent of Police for the City of New Orleans, deny the allegations in the Complaint For Declaratory Judgment and Injunctive Relief and specifically deny that it was or is the policy of the City of New Orleans nor the New Orleans Police Department to illegally seize lawfully possessed firearms from citizens;

Defendants C. Ray Nagin, Mayor of the City of New Orleans, and P. Edwin Compass, III, Superintendent of the Department of Police for the City of New Orleans, specifically deny each and every allegation in the Complaint for Declaratory Judgment and Injunctive Relief and specifically reserving all rights herein and waiving none, assert the following:

1. C. Ray Nagin has not issued, nor has he any intention of issuing, any order, declaration, promulgation, and/or directive pursuant to the authority granted unto him by LSA-R.S. 29:721, et seq., ordering the seizure of any lawfully-possessed firearm from law abiding citizens, nor has C. Ray Nagin delegated any authority granted unto him pursuant to LSA-RS 29:721, et seq. to any other city official, department head, officer, employee, and/or agent of the City of New Orleans including, but not limited to, P. Edwin Compass, III, Superintendent of the Department of Police for the City of New Orleans and/or Warren Riley, Deputy Superintendent of the Department of Police of the City of New Orleans;

2. P. Edwin Compass, III acknowledges that no authority has been delegated to him by C. Ray Nagin, Mayor of the City of New Orleans, pursuant to the powers granted unto the said Mayor by the provisions of LSA-RS 29:721, et seq. to order the seizure of lawfully-possessed firearms from law abiding citizens and that any and all statements which are allegedly attributed to him in such regard do not represent any policy, statement, ordinance, regulation, decision, custom or practice of either C. Ray Nagin or the City of New Orleans, its agencies and/or departments;

3. C. Ray Nagin and P. Edwin Compass, III affirmatively deny that seizures of lawfully possessed firearms from law abiding citizens has occurred as a result of the actions of officers, city officials, employees and/or agents of the City of New Orleans or any of its departments and further affirmatively deny that any such weapons are presently in the possession of the City of New Orleans, its agents and/or departments;

4. C. Ray Nagin and P. Edwin Compass, III further affirmatively deny that it is the custom, practice and/or policy of the City of New Orleans, either officially or unofficially, to seize and/or confiscate lawfully-possessed firearms from law abiding citizens.

PDF file of the Temporary Restraining Order

So, if I read this right, they didn't do it, they couldn't do it, and they wouldn't do it. The old SODDI Defense. Some Other Dude Did It. "Me and my homie wuz home watchin' TV." When the lights are turned on, roaches and rats scatter.

Wayne LaPierre, NRA Executive Vice President Speaks on NOLA

Of any news story since New Orleans became the first venue in America to disarm its peaceable citizens house by house--at gunpoint--nothing brought home the sheer terror of it all more than two broadcast video segments: one on ABC News and another on Fox News Channel.

Opening with scenes of police and Oklahoma National Guardsmen entering homes on a block-by-block search, you cannot watch the ABC piece without fear and anger. Everybody I`ve spoken with who has seen it had the same reaction--the Constitution has been trashed. This was supposed to be a humanitarian effort, not a shoot-to-kill military operation.

If friends might think shoot-to-kill is overblown, tell them to imagine having a locked and loaded M16 or M4 carbine leveled at them by a youthful guardsman with fear in his eyes. Then imagine someone shouting, "He has a gun!"

This is the worst case for honest gun owners come true. But I promise you, when all is said and done by NRA, these scenes will become a nightmare for the gun-ban crowd, because they give lie to their false promises that forced gun confiscation would never happen in America.

With images of police and guardsmen clearing rooms, shouldered M16s at the ready, the ABC reporter explained that they enter homes "with guns drawn with instructions to disarm anyone inside." Then the New Orleans police chief says, "No one will be able to be armed. We`re going to take all weapons." Remember, this has always been the endgame of New Orleans politicians who were first in line to take a crack at suing the firearm industry out of existence.

In the ABC broadcast, young men are sitting on a curb with arms handcuffed behind their backs, surrounded by heavily armed police. They could be any of our college-age kids. Their crime as explained by the ABC reporter: "Homeowners had armed themselves to protect their mansions. Residents were handcuffed on the ground, and in the end, police took their weapons but let them stay in their homes."

In the close of the ABC footage, a very young guardsman says, "Walking up and down these streets you don`t want to have to think about the stuff you are going to have to do. If somebody pops around the corner . . . ." Off camera, the reporter interrupts and says, "You mean shoot an American."

The Americans this young man might shoot are not looters; they are not criminals. They are brave people who simply refused to obey an order by the same local authorities who indefensibly failed to protect them.

Keep in mind, those officials--who ordered every decent citizen of their city to be forcibly disarmed--also sent tens of thousands of residents whose homes were destroyed to endure the living hell of the Superdome and the Convention Center; where people died or were murdered; where bodies rotted; where medical practitioners were frightened away; where gang members killed, robbed and raped at will. All of this with virtually no police presence for a week.

For citizens in neighborhoods spared the flooding and wind damage from the hurricane, the evacuation order made no sense. And arming themselves to protect their persons, families, homes and communities from roving criminal predators made perfect sense. Self-protection is the most basic human right of all.

To see the National Guard troops in this ABC segment is to see them on a war footing. They are edgy. Fearful. But this isn`t war. This is a natural disaster involving innocent Americans whom are victims of nature. These are Americans who chose to be armed so that they would not further become victims of criminal violence.

Many of these people who stayed in their relatively unscathed neighborhoods couldn`t bring themselves to abandon their pets, their possessions. They feared leaving more than staying. Think of being disarmed at gunpoint by the very people who you thought had come to help.

For any level of government--state, local or federal--to disarm these good people in their own homes using the threat of imminent deadly force is unthinkable.

The Fox broadcast brought that message home with incredible force. Seeing a burly police officer body slam a frail, elderly woman who was showing officers her home protection gun--a little Colt Police Positive--is beyond imagination. (See Marshall Lewin`s powerful story on p. 72). Her gun was taken, and she was hauled out of her home.

Law enforcement? No. Tyranny. Clear and simple. And it is a tyranny that must be stopped--never to happen again.

NRA is committed to ensuring that innocent Americans always have the means to defend themselves in their homes and neighborhoods. We will do so by enacting laws to prohibit state and federal authorities from seizing firearms from innocent citizens under a state of emergency due to a natural disaster or terrorist attack.

Self-defense is and must remain the bedrock principle of the Second Amendment.
Posted on the NRA-ILA Website: 9/20/2005

I believe the NRA is stepping up to the plate. We have heard the barking, now let's see the teeth of this dog!
Here's a quick quiz. Pick the legally weilded firearm(s) below.
As a bonus, pick the appropriate response.