There was a U.S. Circuit Court opinion handed down yesterday with full support of the NRA that the state of Louisiana and the government of New Orleans could NOT demand surrender of LAWFULLY owned private weapons or require private citizens to open their homes to search for said weapons.
Even in states of emergency the Constitution is in full affect, thus citizens still enjoy their Fourth Amendment protections from unlawful searches and seizure.
Someone had mentioned that the District of Columbia has enacted a handgun ban for almost 30 years. This is true and I would STRONGLY question the constituionality of said ban. Thus law abiding citizens in D.C can't own them but the police and criminal underclass can. Two things, 1.) D.C. usually ranks as one of the highest murder per capita cities in the U.S. Wouldn't a total handgun ban make it the safest? Secondly in a U.S Supreme Court case from '80 or '81 by which 3 D.C. residents were raped, one a young teenage girl, the Metro D.C. Police were sued for not providing adequate response and protection. The USSC saw in favor of te Police stating that they were not constitutionally bound to provide protection to individual citizens. So let's review, lawful citizens of D.C. cannot possess handguns for self protection AND the police, and this goes for any agency, are NOT bound to provide ANY individual protection. In legal parlance this means the lawful citizen residing in our nations capital has no remedy!
So fast forward to New Orleans. Hurricane hits, levees break, looting ensues, and one third of the police cut and run. Now most of the cops were outnumbered and outgunned, thus an understandable response. Still this leaves the lawful citizens of New Orleans to fend for themselves. Now we have federal and multi state and local law enforcement patrolling the city demanding that citizens surrender their weapons. Though looting has been stemmed their is no guarantee that a return to anarchy couldn't occur, though unlikely. Still the aforementioned D.C. case still holds true. None of those cops or soldiers are legally bound to provide any individual protection to individual citizens. Last thought on this remember the L.A. Riots. If you noticed that many a Korean store owner visibly patrolling their store fronts and roofs with legally purchased military style semi-automatic rifles were spared to a great degree the ravages of looting that their un armed neighbors succumbed to as LAPD pulled out of South Central, you would not be wrong.
There is a small lesson to be learned in all of this, when "mere anarchy is loosed upon the world," we really have ourselves to rely upon for our own security.
Rant Over!
Best,
Dave