Published: September 10, 2005
Op-Ed Contributor
Looters, bad Guys Keep Guns, Law Abiding Citizens Denied
In the wake of widespread lootings and home invasions in New Orleans, there have been reports of valiant men and women who defended themselves against opportunist, armed intruders and looters to protect what little they had, against the criminal thugs.
The U.S. Constitutional Right to Bear Arms did its job! They thwarted off hardened criminals, roaming the streets robbing and pillaging! These men and women of valor protected their friends, family and neighbors when police were nowhere to be found!
The city of New Orleans has begun confiscating legally-owned firearms from its residents, stripping them of their right of self defense, as law-abiding citizens.
"Simply outrageous!", was the reaction from Erich Pratt, Director of Communications for Gun Owners of America.
"By what authority can the mayor order these confiscations?" Pratt said. "You can't legitimately suspend the God-given rights of American citizens who have committed no crimes.
"These confiscations will not make the people of New Orleans any safer. Privately owned firearms were the only thing that prevented good people from becoming victims in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, when few policemen were to be found anywhere in the city."
"Unfortunately, we have yet to learn the lessons from previous dark episodes in our recent history," Pratt said. "We need to remember those lessons, such as the riots of Los Angeles more than a decade ago."
For several days in 1992, Los Angeles was in complete turmoil as stores were looted and burned. Motorists were dragged from their cars and beaten. As in New Orleans, police in L.A. were very slow in responding to the crisis. Many Guardsmen, after being mobilized to the affected areas, sat by and watched the violence because their rifles were low on ammunition.
"But not everybody in Los Angeles suffered," Pratt said. "In some of the hot spots, Korean merchants were able to successfully protect their stores with semi-automatic firearms. In areas where armed citizens banded together for self-protection, their businesses were spared while others -- which were left unprotected. -- burned to the ground."
Interestingly, press reports in the aftermath of the riots described how life-long gun control supporters were running to gun stores to buy an item they never thought they would need -- a gun.
Tragically, they were surprised (and outraged!) to learn there was a 15-day waiting period upon firearms.
"Will we never learn?" Pratt asked. "It is a fact that firearms save millions of lives every year. So if Mayor Ray Nagin really wanted to help the decent citizens of New Orleans, he would be issuing law abiding citizens firearms instead of taking them away. Nagin's actions will put people in further jeopardy -- and if one citizen dies in New Orleans because he was deprived of the ability to defend himself or his family, there will be blood on the Mayor's hands."
The question is: Mr. Mayor, if a mother or father dies because of your unconscionable confiscation: Will you take the responsibility to take care of the orphaned children and raise them as your own?
ABOUT LARRY AND ERICH PRATT.
Larry Pratt is founder and Executive Director of Gun Owners of America.
Gun Owners of America is a national gun lobby with over 300,000 members located at 8001 Forbes Place, Springfield, VA 22151 and at http://www.gunowners.org.
* The views of Opinion writers do not necessarily reflect the views of NewsBlaze
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