releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=53144

9/12/2005 2:50:00 PM


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To: National and State Desks

Contact: Alan Gottlieb or Joe Waldron, both of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, 425-454-4911

BELLEVUE, Wash. Sept. 12 /U.S. Newswire/ -– Following low-key inquiries that were met with stony silence and official indifference, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA) today is calling for a federal investigation into reports of gun seizures from law-abiding New Orleans residents, and is demanding that officials there immediately account for all confiscated firearms.

CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb is also demanding that New Orleans police officials immediately stop the seizures, disclose where those firearms are being kept, how they are secured, the type and number of firearms involved, and how those guns will be promptly returned to their rightful owners, in the condition in which they were originally taken.

"I also want to know under just what authority New Orleans officials are confiscating lawfully-owned firearms from law-abiding citizens," Gottlieb said. "Where does it say that the state and federal Constitution can be nullified, even briefly, simply because of a hurricane? In every other natural disaster this country has ever faced, people retain their civil rights, including the right of self-defense, but New Orleans and Louisiana state officials have added the sin of arrogance to incompetence and negligence for which they must be held accountable when this is over."

Gun rights activists have been outraged by a film clip showing a police officer tackling an elderly woman who was armed, in her own home, and later removing her from the premises.

"We know this is only one incident that is being replayed incessantly, and that not all the circumstances are known," said CCRKBA Executive Director Joe Waldron, "but this incident, combined with statements by local officials, particularly Police Superintendent P. Edwin Compass III, that nobody but police will be allowed to have guns, demands a full and complete explanation to the American public. Visiting police and National Guardsmen are in New Orleans to help hurricane victims, and the nation is grateful beyond words. You don’t help people by violating their civil rights or the public trust."

"There are reports that residents who refuse to leave are being disarmed, anyway," Gottlieb added, "leaving them to the mercy of any lingering looters and thugs. If true, it is unconscionable. In the anarchy that reigned in the city for days, these armed citizens provided the only protection for their families, businesses and neighborhoods when many police walked off their jobs, and a few even participated in the looting, and the world knows it. The people responsible for making that decision should be immediately disciplined and relieved of command. Visiting officers from other jurisdictions involved in these confiscations should be immediately sent home.

"New Orleans is still part of the United States, not a police state," Gottlieb concluded.

With more than 650,000 members and supporters nationwide, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms ( http://www.ccrkba.org ) is one of the nation's premier gun rights organizations. As a non-profit organization, the Citizens Committee is dedicated to preserving firearms freedoms through active lobbying of elected officials and facilitating grass-roots organization of gun rights activists in local communities throughout the United States.

http://www.usnewswire.com/

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/© 2005 U.S. Newswire 202-347-2770/



and still all I hear from the NRA is crickets

good,

hope the nra will follow suit

Didn't even know they existed.  I need to join.

Debo

Excellent - hope the JBT who perpetrated this travesty are summarily dismissed.  

Quoted: Excellent - hope the JBT who perpetrated this travesty are summarily dismissed.

No chance- they'll be given Hero of the Soviet Union Homeboyland Security medals.


And two weeks paid vacation in Las Vegas, yo!

Have they actually done anything besides a few phone calls & a press release?  Have they filed suit?

All gun-rights groups need to immediately file lawsuits against the city and state. The only thing that wakes up a corrupt leadership is the threat of a lawsuit and the continued threat of bad publicity.

Quoted: and still all I hear from the NRA is crickets

(Fairfax, VA) -- National Rifle Association leader Wayne LaPierre slammed New Orleans authorities Monday for seizing legal firearms from lawful residents. "What we've seen in Louisiana - the breakdown of law and order in the aftermath of disaster - is exactly the kind of situation where the Second Amendment was intended to allow citizens to protect themselves, " LaPierre said. "When law enforcement isn't available, Americans turn to the one right that protects all the others - the right to keep and bear arms," LaPierre said. "This attempt to repeal the Second Amendment should be condemned." The New York Times reported last Thursday that no civilians in New Orleans will be allowed to have guns, quoting the superintendent of police that "only law enforcement are allowed to have weapons." A Louisiana state statute allows the chief law enforcement officer to "regulate possession" of firearms during declared emergencies. "But regulate doesn't mean confiscate," said Chris W. Cox, the NRA's chief lobbyist. "Authorities are using that statute to do what the looters and criminals could not: disarm the law-abiding citizens of New Orleans trying to protect their homes and families," Cox said. "The NRA will not stand idly by while guns are confiscated from law-abiding people who're trying to defend themselves," he said. "We're exploring every legal option available to protect the rights of lawful people in New Orleans," Cox said, "and we're taking steps to overturn such laws in every state where they exist." "Local authorities in New Orleans are turning nature's assault on human life into man's assault on human rights," LaPierre said. "Four million NRA members intend to stop this unconstitutional power grab."

Try the crow I hear it's good.

Well?