New Orleans LOSES in Federal court!

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It tried to get the NRA / SAF lawsuit dismissed and LOST. This is from the SAF site:

osted on SAF Website
http://www.saf.org/viewpr-new.asp?id=198

For Immediate Release: 8/16/2006
BELLEVUE, WA – The Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) today won a key battle in an on-going lawsuit against the City of New Orleans, when a federal judge rejected the city’s motion to dismiss the case.

SAF took New Orleans to court last year to stop illegal confiscation of firearms from private citizens in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Defendants in the case are the city, Mayor Ray Nagin and Police Superintendent Warren Riley. SAF was joined in the historic lawsuit by the National Rifle Association. Both organizations have members living in New Orleans.

The ruling was issued by Judge Carl Barbier of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. He ordered the city to submit a response to the original lawsuit.

“We’re encouraged by this latest ruling,” said SAF founder Alan Gottlieb. “For almost a year, we’ve been fighting the city’s delay tactics, which included outright lying by city officials that any firearms had been seized. Only when we threatened Mayor Nagin and Superintendent Riley with a motion for contempt did the city miraculously discover that they actually did have more than 1,000 firearms that had been taken from their owners.

“We’re moving ahead with this lawsuit not only to protect the rights of gun owners in New Orleans,” Gottlieb continued, “but to also make sure that this serves as a warning to public officials across the country to forget about seizing firearms from their law-abiding owners in the event of a natural or man-made disaster.

“The next step will include getting an accurate inventory of all confiscated firearms still in the city’s possession,” Gottlieb stated. “We’re not going to rest until every one of those guns is back in the hands of its rightful owner, and the city understands that it cannot defy a federal court order, state law or the Louisiana and federal constitutional provisions that guarantee the individual right to keep and bear arms.

“We’re fighting to make sure this kind of outrage will never again happen on American soil,” he concluded.

The Second Amendment Foundation (www.saf.org) is the nations oldest and largest tax-exempt education, research, publishing and legal action group focusing on the Constitutional right and heritage to privately own and possess firearms. Founded in 1974, The Foundation has grown to more than 600,000 members and supporters and conducts many programs designed to better inform the public about the consequences of gun control. SAF has previously funded successful firearms-related suits against the cities of Los Angeles; New Haven, CT; and San Francisco on behalf of American gun owners, a lawsuit against the cities suing gun makers and an amicus brief and fund for the Emerson case holding the Second Amendment as an individual right.

*** END ***

[party]
 
I received an e-mail from the NRA-ILA about the same thing. Here is the text. I added the bold part since it really ticked me off.

Statement from Chris Cox on NRA's
Lawsuit Against the City of New Orleans
Today, in a landmark victory for NRA and law-abiding gun owners, Judge Carl J. Barbier of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana denied the City of New Orleans' motion to dismiss NRA's lawsuit against the city and held that the Second Amendment applies to law-abiding residents in the State of Louisiana and the City of New Orleans. Straining the bounds of credibility and reflecting the true sentiment of anti-gunners, the City of New Orleans contemptuously argued that the Second Amendment does not apply to residents in the State of Louisiana and the City of New Orleans.

NRA first filed suit after reports surfaced indicating that, following Hurricane Katrina, firearms were confiscated from law-abiding New Orleans residents. Former New Orleans Police Chief Eddie Compass issued orders to confiscate firearms from all citizens, under a flawed state emergency powers law. With that one order, the one means of self-protection innocent victims had during a time of widespread civil disorder was stripped away.

NRA filed suit in federal court and won a preliminary injunction ending all the illegal gun confiscations. After the City of New Orleans failed to comply with the court's ruling and dishonestly claimed that the gun confiscations never occurred, NRA filed a motion for contempt that included an order directing all seized firearms be returned to their rightful owners.

After denying the illegal confiscations for months, on March 15, 2006, Mayor Nagin and the New Orleans Police Department finally conceded in federal court that the seized firearms were stored in two trailers. The city then agreed in court to a process by which law-abiding citizens would be able to file a claim to receive their confiscated firearms. However, few firearms were returned because the NOPD never notified gun owners how to claim their guns, and turned many away citing impossible standards for proof of ownership.

Today's ruling sets the stage for a continued legal fight in which NRA will be forced to expend additional resources to fight back the anti-gunner's blatant and shameful attempts to ignore the Second Amendment. The case will now move to discovery and pre-trial preparation.

NRA will keep you informed of future developments regarding this case.
Click to expand...
 
Score 1 for the good guys!
thrasher.gif
 
I hope they can stop it from ever happening again. Its nice to know that if there was ever a SHTF situation I wouldn't wind up with nothing but the s*** end of the stick.
Imagine how many excelent condition collector pieces will be returned eventually but in rusted or scratched up condition.[angry]
 
Jeez, I might actually have to rejoin the NRA. This is actually the kind of thing they need to be doing...
 
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