9/30/2005

Tidbits about Suit to stop gun confiscation in New Orleans

Note from Don Kates:

. . . [Steve] Halbrook and local [Louisiana] counsel brought an emergency suit to enjoin illegal gun confiscations in and around New Orleans. And the NRA suit won an immediate order from a federal court enjoining the confiscations. In fact the defendants� position actually was that the gun confiscation statements were a hoax. Their intention was not to confiscate guns but to terrify and fool people into leaving their guns at home. Of course an "unintended" side effect of all their "no guns" statements was that police officers, believing that they were being told to confiscate guns, did so.

Hopefully this initial success will terminate in a permanent injunction, and lead to civil damage suits against the officers and their departments. . . .


Last night I heard that one of the reasons that the New Orleans police chief was fired this week was because of the gun confiscations that had occurred. Whether Nagin really had nothing to do with it is debatable, but at least it may indicate concern over future fall out (possibly the civil damages that Kates notes).