Just in case you think police will always behave responsibly, consider the following:
I scanned this from a document the NRA sent me, and I agree with it.
No phone. No power. No 911. No police. No way to get help.
You're totally cut off from the rest of the world. Armed, predatory gangs are roaming the streets and committing violent felonies at will. And with nothing to rely on except yourself, you have no choice but to stand at the ready, day and night, to defend your family, keep looters out of your home, or even prevent a murder or rape.
More than a week later, when police and National Guard troops finally arrive, you feel relief... Until they make it clear that they've come to confiscate yourguns under sweeping "emergency powers" laws.
As hard to believe as it sounds, the situation I'm describing is exactly what law-abiding citizens of New Orleans faced -- just days after Hurricane Katrina struck.
Two weeks into the disaster, high-ranking politically-appointed police officials set out to turn nature's assault into a government assault on our rights -- and destroy the last remaining thing that Katrina couldn't touch... The RIGHT guaranteed by our Second Amendment to keep and bear firearms for self defense.
The signal for city-wide gun confiscation came from New Orleans Superintendent of Police Edwin Compass, who declared: "No one will be able to be armed. Guns will be taken. Only law enforcement will be allowed to have guns." In a statement to the Associated Press, Deputy Police Chief Warren Riley underscored this profound betrayal by stating, "We are going to take all the weapons. "
And with these announcements, law enforcement officials began a massive house-to-house search -- confiscating lawfully-owned firearms that, in the days and hours before, had been used to prevent countless murders, robberies, looting and rapes.
Just that quickly, every notion of justice, freedom, and common sense that you and I have ever believed in was turned completely inside out.
In the eyes of the government, the good guys -- true heroes who had defended not just themselves but their families and neighbors -- were now bad guys.
And the bad guys -- who had exploited the tragedy and chaos to go on a sickening spree of murder, looting and rape -- were effectively given government protection to commit any crime they wanted, no matter how heinous.
In a place where 25 percent of the police force inexplicably vanished from their jobs... Where helpless people were ordered into the Superdome by the mayor, some reported to be murdered and raped while denied police protection... Where hospitals were looted for drugs... Where gunfire erupted every night on the streets... Where government officials played the blame game for days around an expanding circle of mayhem and death...
... The police were dispatched into the homes of law-abiding citizens with orders to disarm them -- by force if necessary.
Fox News caught one of these violent episodes against peaceable citizens on tape when police entered the residence of an elderly woman, Patricia Konie, and demanded that she evacuate her home. Konie pointed out that her street was dry, she had plenty of food and water and, if looters carne, she had a gun.
But when she showed her revolver, held in her palm with the cylinder open, no finger on the trigger, the police mercilessly body-slammed the elderly woman into a wall, sending dishes flying -- then confiscated her firearm and dragged her from her home.
No one will ever know how many violent crimes were prevented by law-abiding citizens with lawfully-owned firearms when New Orleans erupted into total chaos and anarchy.
No one will ever know how many violent crimes were committed after law-abiding citizens were forcibly disarmed in the citywide gun sweep. But I do know one thing with absolute certainty:
THIS PRECEDENT CANNOT BE ALLOWED TO STAND. |
