History repeats itself

[DeseoUnTaco]

"Hardware dealers sold an estimated 20,000 pistols in one month," says writer Lately Thomas, "and women walked the streets clutching long hatpins."

Sounds like what's happening in Louisiana right now, except that women don't have hairpins anymore. When and where was it? San Francisco, after the quake of 1906:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/09/11/INGVKEKE2K1.DTL
Even a hundred years ago, long before the days of welfare, huge disasters brought out the worst in us and turned cities into criminal free-for-alls. Even then there were disputes about who can have guns after the disaster. One difference between then and now was that the armed volunteer patrols were willing to shoot back at the US military when the military tried to disarm them. Today I think most people would see that you can't win a firefight with the military or with special police units, and so would not shoot back.

A lot of people have been asking, "Where's the NRA when you need them?" I think the NRA needs to work to pass a national law that explicitly says:

Unless martial law is formally declared by the governor or the president
a) the US Military (ie, national guard, etc) shall not assist law enforcement authorities in confiscating lawfully posessed firearms, including in times of emergency
b) Confiscation of legally possessed arms in time of emergency is a deprivation of civil rights, and law enforcement officers who perform such confiscations may be criminally charged under the Civil Rights Act (or something like that)

That's a reasonable law and it's obviously needed. They needed a law like that 100 years ago in San Francisco!

 

[ctdonath]

The Founding Fathers would likely observe that when martial law is declared, that is exactly the time to NOT submit to confiscation. ... do you forget how the American Revolutionary War began?

 

[beerslurpy]

I wasnt aware that the executive branch could suspend the consitution at will, even if they had a good reason. Even habeas corpus can only be suspended in times of war or rebellion and then only when the public safety requires it.

IT IS NEVER EVER LEGAL TO CONFISCATE FIREARMS UNLESS SOMEONE IS COMMITTING A CRIME WITH THEM.

There may be laws that dont agree with that, but those laws disagree with the constitution of the US, which is the highest authority on such matters.

 

[DeseoUnTaco]

Ok, I agree with you both. The right to keep and bear arms is "inalienable" meaning, it can't be taken away. It's innate, it's something we have, it was never given to us by any government. It's just part of the fact that we're a free people.

And obviously, we need guns especially during times of emergency. That's what they are there for. The events in NO showed that, and the events of SF showed exactly the same thing 99 years earlier.

My sample wording was just to make it in a way that might be more realisticly able to get through congress. I really think there should be some kind of bill to make it clear that a) the national guard won't help looters (police) steal (confiscate) legally-owned firearms and b) looters will be brought to justice, no matter if they have a badge or not. The NRA should get on this so we're ready next time.

The other thing that would help would be to have an emergency legal team of some kind. The NRA should have gotten injunctions, and also started working with prosecutors to go after looters-with-badges who were taking legally-owned guns. Committing a crime under color of authority doesn't mitigate the crime; it makes it worse.

 

[Coronach]

Define 'martial law'.

Now, consider it in light of the fact that martial law, as a term, does not exist in LA.

Consider, instead, that there is a LA "State of Emergency" statute that does exist, that grants most (all?) of the powers you basically proscribed to "martial law."

Now, consider that the Governor, apparently, did invoke that statute.

In other words, martial law, for all intents and purposes, was declared.

So...what, exactly, was the point of this?

Mike

PS Don't take my read of this as gospel. I'm very much not up to speed on LA law, the vagaries of Nagin's and the Governor's weasel words, etc. There was and still is a lot of confusion on the part of what is going on, and the legal ramifications of it.

 

[LoneStranger]

Also factor in that LA operates under Napoleanic Code where the other 49 states and such operate under English Common Law or derivations of it.

Why when you go into one of the Computer Lawyer programs you will always see LA mentioned as an exception.

 

[mercedesrules]

I wasnt aware that the executive branch could suspend the consitution at will,