Riley says he'll confiscate weapons if disaster strikes, gun rights activists outraged

10:29 PM CDT on Friday, June 2, 2006
Jonathan Betz / WWL-TV News Reporter


Gun rights activists were up in arms Friday after New Orleans Police Chief Warren Riley said he would confiscate weapons should disaster strike.

(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Frederick Thomas, from New Orleans, leaves New Orleans Police with his semi-automatic pistol that was confiscated in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans on Monday April 17, 2006.


The chief’s comments came after a federal lawsuit forced the city to return hundreds of firearms that were seized in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.


In an interview with WWL Radio, Riley said his officers would seize guns from people on the streets if another storm was to hit New Orleans.


“During a circumstance like that, we cannot allow people to walk the street carrying guns…as law enforcement officers we will confiscate the weapon if a person is walking down the street and they may be arrested,” Riley said.


The National Rifle Association sued the city and forced it to return hundreds of guns, after officers seized them during Katrina. Gun rights activists were once again outraged by Riley's comments.


”It’s shocking, there's nothing about a police chief's opinion that gives them a super sized authority to throw the constitution out the window,” said NRA Executive Vice-President Wayne Lapierre.


“God spared a lot of people in this storm, he also spared a lot of violent people who were committing violent crimes with firearms,” one ATF agent said regarding the confiscation of weapons during Katrina.


But gun activists said the move robbed people of their right to protect themselves when chaos ruled the city.


“Your firearm in your home, was the only protection from the criminal element,” said State Representative Steve Scalise.


Chief Riley said Friday that officers would not again enter people’s homes to seize weapons.


During Katrina, state law gave the chief the authority to take guns during an emergency. Since then lawmakers have re-written the law, making it a crime, one they said the chief was threatening to commit.


“He does not have the right to confiscate their firearms, nobody in this country does, that's why we have a 2nd amendment to our constitution,” said Scalise.

http://www.wwltv.com/local/stories/wwl0602...s.4aac3cf1.html

Especially as there was no riot, there were no major incidents and the looting was allowed by the few police that didn't hightail it out of town thinking life was a vacation

frenchy-I know you don't like the different "theories" around, but when they come for your guns and everyone is locked up because they tried to expose the truth, who will help you keep your guns? We will all be in jail or concentration camps, like the citizens of New Orleans found themselves in who were trapped in the Convention center or Football stadium

I keep my eye on the reality of my world Graham, and I have no allusions as to what governments are capable of. You however can ascribe to any theory you want.

I just want you and the people of this country who have them to now keep your guns, and keep them ready

they might be the last line of defense this country has after all from its rogue government

It is why we hold on so jealously to the tenants of the 2nd. Amendment, in spite of the derision we receive from the anti-gun Left.
I suppose my paranoia matches yours in this respect.

Some of the "anti-gun" left may be getting the point now.

All I want to see here is a little more common sense and rationality, and a little less emotion and hysteria concerning the issue.

A guy called Steve on one forum or another, made me turn 180 degrees from being anti-gun to being pro-gun. If it was you, then thanks. But being aware of the conspiracies that G4A, Magmak1, and others like us put forth all the time, without rest, has made me more and more pro-gun because I can see all the conspiracies heading in the direction of taking power off the people, dumbing them down, and jailing those who have the wit to oppose the government. It really is, in the end, an awareness of the conspiracy to silence people, that made me appreciate that law protecting your gun rights.

While the original intent of the Second. Amendment was to allow the citizen to defend itself from the tyranny of government, I don't ascribe to the inevitability of such a sweeping event.
Could it happen...Yes! One could fantasize on numerous scenarios to this end. However...I have enough belief in the structure of our Democracy as to allow this not to happen.
I am more concerned with how a national catastrophe (economic, natural disaster, pandemic etc), could unleash the lawless upon us (the “haves”vs. the “have-nots”), and not have the where-with-all to defend ourselves. This IMO is a real and immediate concern. We refer to this as the “when the SHTF” scenario".

No matter how many times you repeat it you're telling a lie. I never heard the bizarre story you put forward when I was in NOLA about 4 months after Katrina, but I did hear (and see live TV reports about besides being told personally) about some police precincts coming under heavy fire and Indianhead has seen the bullet holes. According to you Indianhead is a liar, I've met him, your slander is highly offensive!

You use the word slander way too much. And you make a statment that has nothing to do with what I said. Bullet holes? Some precincts?Vague, and having nothing to do with what I said.

Ask anyone in America who watched the TV.

The tv reports showed the people at the convention center and none of them were scared of bullets flying. The tv showed the football stadium. The tv showed people drowning, bodies floating, bodies in wheel chairs disintegrating.

What you saw was one near death person after another, hot, hungry, tired, no energy, and you know if a crowd of people hear gunfire, they scream, run and duck.

Well, NO ONE moved out of the pictures that were shown live for days.

So obviously there was no gun fire there. Besides, none of those nice people had a weapon.

They were taken away.

Who knows where you or indianhead were, but if you were not on the tv screen,
you were not in the same area as what I saw and America saw.

The enemy was the federal government not doing anything. Not the beautiful people being killed, exploited and genocide'd to forever get them out of an area.
The people who were tax paying citizens with equal rights as you or me.

Again, if there was gun fire all around and a riot, those people would not have stayed silent and still all 10s of thousands of them. Someone would have ducked
for cover. It is only natural, and those people were not afraid of non-existent bullets. They were afraid of George W. Doctor Death Bush.

No, you slander people way too much, what part of "you shouldn't make baseless or weakly based accusations" don't you understand? I'm tired of your almost incessant barrage of lies and distortion!

Genius, there were also reports on TV about reporters being with groups of police who'd been under fire in their stations for 3 days and nights, video of snipers shooting at people trying to evacuate hospitals, interviews with doctors mentioning the problem and literally hundreds of other pieces of evidence on TV (which you somehow consider authoritative on Katrina but a propaganda tool on 9-11).

Too vague! Your crap on this is as vague as it gets except where you make the insane claim that because there wasn't much violence at the convention center it wasn't a major problem in other areas!

I don't knw why you feel the need to defend the authority- half the authority
high tailed it out of there, and concoted stories.

Why you feel the need to blame me for what I saw- and what millions saw-

ask Jack Cafferty, ask that CNN guy Andrewson Cooper on what they reported.
I was watching them...

You yourself said you were there 4 weeks later, not during the first days
If I recall, indianhead can defend himself, I never called him a liar, nor have anything against him.

I just go by what i see and hear and smell...
If I am not watching what you watched, its a big place.

But you kept saying the people at the convention center and stadium couldn't be moved because of constant gunfire
I think if there was gunfire, there would be screaming, fleeing of the immediate area and none of that was shown
TV was there LIVE and the camera never waivered this time

This has nothing to do with 9-11

And if you don't like magmak's posts on 9-11, and that I believe what he posts is true, that is both your and my perogative.

Nthing to do with your using the word slander a million times. It has nothing to do with that.

For all I know, you were watching Fox and their coverage, some of us here consider lies and distortions. It would be in the realm of sensibility for Fox to say there were riots (because we all know Fox considers black people vicious animals)

But what I was watching showed none of that

g4a,


Your dishonest inuendo and strawmen are beyond the pale!

I was watching CNN, I don't know if you got your information from Radio Havana, but people watching CNN saw what I saw.

You display your usual accuracy by changing 4 months to 4 weeks.

I wasn't there during it, I just have my information from people who were and from others who talked with many who were and saw the physical evidence of the firefights (they also talked with people who were there during them).

Why do you have this compulsion to waste other peoples time with lies, inuendo, speculation and downright hallucinations about a situation you're clearly clueless on?

The people of the USA know it was not the victims fault, as much as it wasn't the victiims of the Amish shooting fault for being shot.

It was the authorities fault in Katrina

Another strawman, as usual! I never claimed that it was the victims fault or the authorities don't deserve a lot of blame, just your way of trying to mislead the readers.

Well, I hope it never comes down to the citizens need to defend themselves from our government by force of arms.

Honestly, I don't think anyone could make most of the people in the military use deadly force against the general population. Even back in the Vietnam war days when radicals where storming armories the authorization to use deadly forces was extremely limited.

Out here in the boonies or the hinterlands as you call them, I'm armed against the lawless, not our government.

Indeed Marine!...I believe that those of us that reside in "fly over" country have a better and more realistic grasp of what the Second Amendment means in today's world, as compared to our city-bound brethren.

What's the difference between the Tin man and the Straw man?

I don't know who you are trying to blame in Katrina, but it sure wasn't the nice people who were forever banished from their home, the US citizens kicked out of their house, and nothing and no one helped their situation for 4 or 5 long days.

Alot of excuses were made at the time, none of which explained diddley.

And most of the deplaced will never be allowed back, nor have their voting rights figured out (which was most likely the Bush goal in the first place)

And the good people had their guns taken away from them.

So why are you fighting against that?

Yet another straw man, is your main purpose in life wasting other peoples time? I'm fighting against your outright lies, in this case the one about what happened in NOLA.

Your hyperbole shines.
What lies?

How many people were kicked out permanently?
How many?

What person in Bush's administraiton did anything for them?
Let alone the governor, mayor or anyone in power.
And the cops and other rescue workers more than 1/2 just abandoned their job...

Floating the Bush spin that it was too dangerous to help these (as Fox calls them "animals" because they were riotting), just let some of the population think that.

Better to do is look into who blew up the levee's and see if someone did.
Maybe it was all manmade.
After all, the night of the big storm came and went, the morning there was no flood...
it was only hours later the water came back

Tomhye, there are people on CGCS who defend the government of the USA to the last ounce of energy they have. I don't know why they do it. I have said lots about CNN being in the pay of the CIA, or hinted it, but even CNN showed what G4A is talking about, supporting G4A's summary. Not only - that CNN interviewed people who SHOWED video of empty buses leaving the scene in convoys. CNN showed people holding signs saying ''We NEED HELP'' etc. CNN showed the citizens of New Orleans being disarmed. CNN showed us days and days in which nobody helped the people in the big stadium and the other centre.

But CNN also said wild stories about rapes and murders in the Superbowl or whatever it was called and that other place. They wanted us to believe that 'mad blacks' were dangerous and had to be disarmed. Even 80 year old white women living alone needed to be and were disarmed in front of the whole world watching.

CNN also said how they had no services, were locked in by guards.

And the story ''A bridge too far'' told us how the authorities acted in the most bizarre and frightening way, sending people in wheelchairs back to the disaster area because they did not want them helped. These good people put together all their money and ordered buses for themselves to get them out. But the authorities confiscated them.

Worst of all, perhaps, the only people remaining with the infirm and immobile victims, who decided in their GOODNESS, because God is there where good people are, to give some people lethal drugs so that they could not be starved to death or drowned the way BushCo had arranged it, those good people came to be demonized. All focus went on CNN to getting these people 'what they deserved.'

Why would Tomhye want to support all the people who seem so hell bent on destroying innocent lives and forcing them to suffer. And did it remind you of another event.....Beslan.....all those people forced to stay together without proper services and no food or drink. The emphasis on 'controlling' them. It might well remind us, because it was the same people doing it.

I sure hope so. I have noticed that alot of the Democrats running for office are pro-gun. Lookin good.


Me, too.


I just wish more people were open minded like you, on this issue. Alot of people out there don't look at things with an open mind or with common sense. I think that if more people were to do this, we wouldn't have near as many anti-gun nuts out there.