Gun confiscation: can it happen again?

February 20, 6:02 AMCleveland Gun Rights ExaminerDaniel White

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Courtesy Oleg Volk

I've talked several times in the last week or so about gun reforms needed in Ohio. I'd like to close out the week by examining one in particular that some people might not think is needed because of the Second Amendment.

Many people outside the gun rights community don't know that we had an actual gun confiscation in this country only a few short years ago. Some think that it isn't even possible to confiscate guns from law abiding citizens due to the Second Amendment, and in fact, the gun control advocates use that naivety to claim gun owners are just paranoid. But in September of 2005, citizens of New Orleans found out just how real that threat could be.

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, when law enforcement and safety forces were decimated by the natural disaster, the response of the authorities was to confiscate all firearms.

No civilians in New Orleans will be allowed to carry pistols, shotguns or other firearms, said P. Edwin Compass III, the superintendent of police. "Only law enforcement are allowed to have weapons," he said.

As soon as the confiscations were verified, the NRA filed suit and won, halting the gun roundup. However, it still took years for the whole thing to make its way through the courts, and thousands of firearms were destroyed by poor storage conditions in the meantime. Many citizens never got their firearms back, essentially having them stolen by the police department. Hundreds of people were left defenseless.

When a natural disaster so bad that a state of emergency is called, safety forces are stretched far beyond their resources, particularly in the early hours and days. More so than ever, many people are left to fend for themselves, and we all heard the stories about the looting and other crime that rampaged in the wake of Katrina. Then, more than ever, you need to be able to protect yourself while waiting for help to arrive, if it ever comes at all.

Yet, in New Orleans, officials chose to respond to the crisis by disarming law abiding citizens, leaving them at the mercy of those who would choose to take advantage of the situation.

In an attempt to prevent something like this from happening again, the NRA began pushing "Katrina legislation" in many states, explicitly making it a crime to confiscate firearms during a state of emergency. Such legislation has been introduced in Ohio in the past, but did not make it through the process to become law. Adding such protections for law abiding citizens is a priority for Ohioans For Concealed Carry, and was one of the reforms included in discussions with legislators last week.

So the next time someone tries to tell you that the American government would never come for your guns, tell them to remember New Orleans.