BELLEVUE, WA – The Senate’s overwhelming 84-16 vote this week to prohibit gun confiscations from private citizens in emergencies shows there has been a remarkable shift in the public’s attitude about gun rights after the Hurricane Katrina debacle, the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) said today.
“For many in the Senate, like Republicans Mike DeWine of Ohio and Lincoln Chaffee of Rhode Island, and Democrats Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell of Washington,” observed SAF Founder Alan Gottlieb, “it was the first time they’ve voted to support the individual rights of law-abiding gun owners. They saw the looting and lawlessness, and watched the outrage of post-Katrina gun confiscations, and so did their constituents.
“Incredibly,” he continued, “sixteen extremist anti-gun Democrats, led by Hillary Clinton, demonstrated by their vote that they think it’s just swell for the government to seize private property from law-abiding citizens, often times at gunpoint and always without warrant or due process of law. This time, it’s guns but what about next time? If it is okay with these senators for police to take legally-owned firearms without probable cause, what would they advocate next for confiscation?”
SAF successfully sued the City of New Orleans and St. Tammany Parish last September to force a halt to those illegal gun seizures. The National Rifle Association joined in that lawsuit.
“For people of such divergent political views as Joe Biden, Robert Byrd, Blanche Lincoln, Joe Lieberman, Patrick Leahy, Chuck Hagel, Orrin Hatch, Wayne Allard, Max Baucus and 75 of their colleagues, this vote was a no-brainer,” Gottlieb observed. “What a pity that Sen. Clinton’s group remains so myopic about firearm civil rights that they vote to essentially support the warrantless seizure of private property.
“We hope the House concurs with this vote,” Gottlieb concluded, “so that never again, on American soil, will we witness a police state mentality that would sooner disarm people and leave them defenseless when they should be offered assistance and medical aid if necessary. Being secure from warrantless search and seizure is guaranteed by the Bill of Rights, even if some people in New Orleans, and a handful on Capitol Hill, seem willing to ignore that.”