Something terrible happens. A blizzard strikes. Two disgruntled teenagers plan to blow up a school and instead kill 12 classmates and a teacher. A terrorist attack occurs.
In an attempt to restore order and give citizens a sense of safety, the government declares under a state of emergency that the state constitution is temporarily suspended. Our leaders command police and the National Guard to go door-to-door and force homeowners at gunpoint to leave their homes. They then search your home and confiscate any firearms inside. If you resist, or if you're caught outside your home with a firearm (even locked in the trunk of your car), you're arrested.
Do you think it can't happen to you?
Residents of New Orleans thought the same thing. But, after Hurricane Katrina struck last year, Mayor Nagin and the Police Chief Eddie Compass declared that law-abiding citizens of that besieged city could not possess a gun. Troops and police went door to door, at gunpoint, and forced citizens to give up their guns or be arrested. Video evidence of this has been documented at
http://www.givethemback.com and is available for your viewing pleasure.
Nagin and Compass were sued by the National Rifle Association (NRA) and Gun Owners of America (GOA). NRA and GOA lawyers fought and won an injunction against Nagin and Compass, forcing them to cease and desist and return the confiscated guns to their rightful owners.
The battle didn't end at that point, however. After gun owners heard the news, they went back to the police in an attempt to recover their weapons. These law-abiding citizens were turned away. Excuses were provided, such as a lack of proof of ownership, despite many of these citizens having serial numbers of their guns. The New Orleans Police Department stated that without
original purchase receipts, ownership could not be proven.
Some might think that guns are evil and dangerous, and therefore it is a good idea for the police to keep such a tight grip on these illegally-confiscated weapons.
Could you imagine what would happen if you were told to provide
original purchase receipts for various items that you owned? Could you do it for, say, your refrigerator, your television or even your car? Current registration or title would not be sufficient - you need to provide the original bill of sale.
It is wise to think of this outside of your own bias. If the government impounded my car and demanded an original bill of sale prior to releasing it, my car would remain in impound until it was sold at auction. I have no clue where the original bill of sale is, or even if I received one when I purchased the car.
I know where many of my receipts are for the big ticket items that I've purchased but, over the years, I've lost some of them. I'm sure that you have as well.
The NRA and GOA then lobbied Congress, which successfully passed the Disaster Recovery Personal Protection Act of 2006,outlawing the practice of government entities confiscating legally-owned firearms during a state of emergency. Of course, this law, like any other, can be rescinded by Congress at any time.
The way to protect your rights is to join a gun-rights advocacy group. There are plenty of good ones out there, and annual memberships cost a few bucks each month. These groups, as you can see, fight on our behalf and keep us informed of any attempts to curtail our rights as citizens.
Remember this - our rights as American citizens are spelled out on a piece of parchment kept under bulletproof glass in the National Archives. Without the Second Amendment, none of those other rights are safe or secure, and can be eliminated at whim once those rights have become "inconvenient" or "dangerous."