Saturday, September 10, 2005
Illegal Gun Confiscation in New Orleans
Denver's own Dave Kopel makes a convincing argument over at the Volokh Conspiracy that the confiscation of guns by police in New Orleans is illegal. This link contains his argument and a good, but not as convincing, counter-argument by Orin Kerr.
When I wrote that I was pragmatically OK with a temporary disarming of the citizenry, I was not making a legal argument, merely one of safety for the troops and first-responders (God, I hate that word) doing an already tough job. And I certainly thought that the guns would be given back once the floodwater was pumped out and the vaunted New Orleans police force (sorry, Al) was back in charge--or at least the 1200 of them that didn't disappear after the hurricane. Because when the New Orleans police force is in charge, the city is a dangerous, crime ridden place and you need a weapon there for self defense.
When I wrote that I was pragmatically OK with a temporary disarming of the citizenry, I was not making a legal argument, merely one of safety for the troops and first-responders (God, I hate that word) doing an already tough job. And I certainly thought that the guns would be given back once the floodwater was pumped out and the vaunted New Orleans police force (sorry, Al) was back in charge--or at least the 1200 of them that didn't disappear after the hurricane. Because when the New Orleans police force is in charge, the city is a dangerous, crime ridden place and you need a weapon there for self defense.
# posted by Roger Fraley @ 6:22 AM 
