I guess the other thread got closed, but you asked:
I lived through the whole thing and know a lot of folks that were involved in the rescue effort, so I feel qualified to answer. I do not live in an area that flooded, so I hardly saw a LEO during a month of the aftermath, except for the helicopters constantly flying over. I did have a handgun with me the entire time, but it stayed under the seat of my pickup, as I had both hands on a chainsaw or was helping unload supplies at a church.
I'd guess that most of the guns were taken off people who were being evac'd from areas where the water was rising a day or so after the storm came through. Many people stayed in those areas and were being rescued by various agencies. Some of them were sitting on their roofs after having hacked through from the attic. Other areas where the water was rising, but not in homes yet, people were being forced to evacuate. Some didn't want to go. In some case, these people were acting reasonably, but in other cases, leaving them in their homes would have meant leaving them to die.
All of these people being plucked out of the floodwaters were being brought to interstate overpasses, or other staging areas nearby where there were thousands of people congregated. I'm sure many of these people wanted to bring a gun, but they weren't allowed to, and for what were at the time legitimate reasons - at this point, most of them were for all practical purposes wards of the state.
There were a lot of nutcases wandering around either looking for something to steal, or fulfilling some survivalist fantasy by taking potshots at passers by. It was to say the least an unsafe and highly unstable environment for a few days. From the point of view of those involved in the rescue effort (most of whom were not from New Orleans in the first place), they were trying to restore order as efficiently as possible, and having armed people roaming the streets looking for adventure or getting into fights with one another amongst a huge crowd of stranded and homeless people wasn't conducive to keeping the peace.
I'm sure that during the body searches house to house that the police grabbed guns that were laying around, most likely to keep them out of the hands of looters. Most of these would have been well on their way to being ruined when they picked them up - having been underwater for days.
I did hear of a couple cases where homeowners had boated in to try and remove valuables from their home, and were stopped by police in a boat who then confiscated their guns (which they were just trying to move).
However, during all the aftermath, if you weren't sitting on top of or inside your badly flooded home waiting to be rescued, and you weren't wandering around shooting at stuff or looting, then the police pretty much let you be. I was in and out of the city quite a bit on private business while the Military was still in charge, and I had a handgun in my vehicle all the time - they never bothered me. I do believe that if I had an AR slung across my back everywhere I went, I surely would have been questioned about it, but to me that is understandable. There was no looting or craziness going on where I was, and to be honest the biggest worry was nutty private citizens who thought that because there was a little anarchy it was a good time to go to town and walk around pointing a gun at people.
There are all kinds of good people in the world, but a few nutcases can raise a big stink in a short time.
I lived through the whole thing and know a lot of folks that were involved in the rescue effort, so I feel qualified to answer. I do not live in an area that flooded, so I hardly saw a LEO during a month of the aftermath, except for the helicopters constantly flying over. I did have a handgun with me the entire time, but it stayed under the seat of my pickup, as I had both hands on a chainsaw or was helping unload supplies at a church.
I'd guess that most of the guns were taken off people who were being evac'd from areas where the water was rising a day or so after the storm came through. Many people stayed in those areas and were being rescued by various agencies. Some of them were sitting on their roofs after having hacked through from the attic. Other areas where the water was rising, but not in homes yet, people were being forced to evacuate. Some didn't want to go. In some case, these people were acting reasonably, but in other cases, leaving them in their homes would have meant leaving them to die.
All of these people being plucked out of the floodwaters were being brought to interstate overpasses, or other staging areas nearby where there were thousands of people congregated. I'm sure many of these people wanted to bring a gun, but they weren't allowed to, and for what were at the time legitimate reasons - at this point, most of them were for all practical purposes wards of the state.
There were a lot of nutcases wandering around either looking for something to steal, or fulfilling some survivalist fantasy by taking potshots at passers by. It was to say the least an unsafe and highly unstable environment for a few days. From the point of view of those involved in the rescue effort (most of whom were not from New Orleans in the first place), they were trying to restore order as efficiently as possible, and having armed people roaming the streets looking for adventure or getting into fights with one another amongst a huge crowd of stranded and homeless people wasn't conducive to keeping the peace.
I'm sure that during the body searches house to house that the police grabbed guns that were laying around, most likely to keep them out of the hands of looters. Most of these would have been well on their way to being ruined when they picked them up - having been underwater for days.
I did hear of a couple cases where homeowners had boated in to try and remove valuables from their home, and were stopped by police in a boat who then confiscated their guns (which they were just trying to move).
However, during all the aftermath, if you weren't sitting on top of or inside your badly flooded home waiting to be rescued, and you weren't wandering around shooting at stuff or looting, then the police pretty much let you be. I was in and out of the city quite a bit on private business while the Military was still in charge, and I had a handgun in my vehicle all the time - they never bothered me. I do believe that if I had an AR slung across my back everywhere I went, I surely would have been questioned about it, but to me that is understandable. There was no looting or craziness going on where I was, and to be honest the biggest worry was nutty private citizens who thought that because there was a little anarchy it was a good time to go to town and walk around pointing a gun at people.
There are all kinds of good people in the world, but a few nutcases can raise a big stink in a short time.
