Judge orders New Orleans police to stop seizing weapons

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Law enforcement must return any guns confiscated.

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Saturday, September 24, 2005


Gun rights groups obtained a temporary restraining order Friday preventing police in New Orleans and a nearby parish from confiscating guns when seeking to evacuate residents.

U.S. District Judge Jay Zainey ordered the New Orleans police and St. Tammany Parish sheriff's officers to stop taking guns from law-abiding people and return any already taken.

In documents filed in federal court in Baton Rouge, La., New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, police Chief Eddie Compass and St. Tammany Sheriff Jack Strain deny ever ordering the confiscation of firearms.

But news reports quoted Compass as saying that only law enforcement officials would be allowed to have firearms and Deputy Chief Warren Riley as saying, "We are going to take all the weapons."

Wayne LaPierre, president of the National Rifle Association, said his group documented 30 to 40 cases of people having their weapons taken away after Katrina hit Aug. 29.

Allen Gottlieb, president of the Second Amendment Foundation, said that if residents who had their guns taken away can prove any financial losses, such as from looting, they might have a case to win compensation from the City of New Orleans.

This may be the start of a major court decision.