The Great New Orleans Gun Grab
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Product Description
Aug. 29, 2005, was a day no American will ever forget. When Hurricane Katrina, one of the five-strongest storms ever to build in the Atlantic Basin, slammed into the city of New Orleans, her towering storm surge tested the limits of the flood walls and levees protecting one of America's largest cities. The surge would find them lacking. As the city filled and drowned, it descended into mass hysteria and anarchy, and within hours became a place that would reveal to Americans whether their Constitution had any more value than the frayed, fragile, brown parchment on which it is written. As looters and thugs took over, the city's leaders turned their crosshairs and iron sights toward the lawful, gun-toting citizens who sought nothing more than to defend themselves from the marauding hordes. In what proved to be the greatest real-life test of the Second Amendment in American history, America failed miserably. The Great New Orleans Gun Grab tells the story of New Orleans residents who legally defied mandatory evacuation orders to protect their property, and who were subsequently beaten, harassed and robbed of their guns by the very civil authority that was funded and charged to protect them.
Spotlight Customer Reviews:
Summary:
VERY IMPORTANT YET DISTURBING READ
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Comment:
I found this book very gripping and difficult to put down once I started reading it.
These stories are a disturbing reminder of the potential for abuse of power when authority is not controlled by proper checks and balances. The stories illustrate how our rights are meaningless without a way to defend and protect those rights.
There is a brighter side to the stories as well though. The strength, courage and willingness to help others shown by those who chose to stay was inspiring.
Well worth your time to read.
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Summary:
It Not Only Could Happen Here, It Did
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Comment:
It Not Only Could Happen Here, It Did
By
Chris Bird
To those head-in-the-sand people who say mass gun confiscations couldn't happen in America, a new book is the perfect response. The Great New Orleans Gun Grab: Descent into Anarchy details the appalling story of how, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, law enforcement officers in New Orleans took legally owned firearms from residents who had committed no crime.
These confiscations took place in blatant disregard for the U.S. and Louisiana constitutions at a time when New Orleans police were providing little or no service or protection for residents of the Crescent City.
The book was written by Gordon Hutchinson and Todd Masson and is published by Louisiana Publishing, Inc. Hutchinson was an officer with the 82nd Airborne Division during the Vietnam era and is now a firearms writer and shooting sports columnist. Masson is an award winning writer and editor for Louisiana Sportsman and several other outdoor magazines.
I recounted in detail one of the stories of survival that came out of New Orleans and touched on some of the gun confiscations in one chapter of my book, Thank God I Had a Gun. But the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina deserved a book of its own and The Great New Orleans Gun Grab is it. The stories are well told and the writing is excellent. I particularly liked the details of the people and neighborhoods involved in each incident. However, it is difficult for a gun owner to read the book without getting angry at the criminal behavior of those who were sworn to uphold the law.
The stories include:
* A lawyer disarmed and arrested supposedly for public intoxication at his home then pepper sprayed and repeatedly shot with beanbag rounds while in custody.
* Another lawyer and former Army officer used a 30-30 Winchester on a hoard of looters who broke into his backyard. He then had to protect his mother from police officers.
* A woman had to be protected by the 82nd Airborne from abusive cops.
* A frail, elderly woman who was disarmed, knocked to the ground and severely injured by several large police officers after they forced their way into her kitchen. This attack was seen on television around the world.
* Two cases of legally owned guns being seized at gunpoint from people on boats on Lake Pontchartrain by sheriff's deputies.
In most cases the police officers were trying to force people to obey a "mandatory evacuation order." The authors speculate that the real reason for trying to get many of these residents out of the city was to stop them from making critical comments to the news media about the incompetence of the authorities.
One of the most disturbing parts of the book is the epilogue. The attempt by the NRA and the Second Amendment Foundation to stop the confiscations and get the illegally seized guns returned to their owners is called "The Second Battle of New Orleans." The authors recount how lawyers for New Orleans first denied in federal court that the city had any seized firearms. After delaying and obfuscating for months, they admitted having more than 1,000 guns but when revealed most were rusted beyond repair. Nearly three years later most of the firearms have not been returned to their owners.
As a result of the illegal gun confiscations, the Louisiana legislature passed a law that specifically prohibits law enforcement officers from seizing legally owned guns from law-abiding residents during emergencies such as hurricanes. Asked what he thought of the new law in a radio interview, the current chief of the New Orleans police Warren Riley stated: "During circumstances like that, we cannot allow people to walk the streets carrying guns. As law-enforcement officers, we will confiscate the weapon if the person is walking down the street, and they may be arrested."
So, despite the valiant work of the NRA and Second Amendment Foundation, is anything likely to be different next time a hurricane devastates New Orleans? We can only wait and see.
Chris Bird is author of The Concealed Handgun Manual and Thank God I Had a Gun: True Accounts of Self-Defense.
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Summary:
This should make you angry
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Comment:
I knew that it was bad down there after Katrina, but this book tells us, through real life stories, how our own "law enforcement" officers acted more like third world juntas. Inexcusable.
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Summary:
Absolutely Unbelievable Behavior
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Comment:
This book was a frightening but must read for all who value their Second Amendment rights. The authors explain in shocking detail how the rights of numerous law-abiding citizens in New Orleans and the surrounding area were shamelessly violated by law enforcement personnel in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. And, even after the NRA filed a lawsuit against New Orleans, the city fathers still haven't learned their lesson as they have already promised to do it again should a similar situation arise.
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Summary:
A must read book for gun owners
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Comment:
I'm glad that someone wrote this book. It is an absolutely, without fail, a must read book for any and every lawful gun owner.
Everyone should know what happened in New Orleans and how a gun confiscation starts so they can know how to stop it before it starts. Reading it will get you mad like it did me but it's something we all need to know. I highly recommend that all American gun owners read it.
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