New Orleans Mayor Grabs Authority to Ban Gun Sales With Coronavirus Emergency Declaration
Richard Moorhead
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New Orleans is the latest American city to declare a state of emergency that gives the mayor to suspend gun sales at her discretion.
Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s declaration of a state of emergency gives her office the power “if necessary, to suspend or limit the sale of alcoholic beverages, firearms, explosives, and combustibles.” The order was drafted last week.
Cantrell also now has the authority to suspend the distribution and sale of alcoholic beverages.
The order is ironic, considering New Orleans’ troubled history with emergency gun confiscation. City police enacted gun confiscation operations targeting law-abiding everyday citizens in the aftermath of 2005’s Hurricane Katrina, fueling into panic and blunting the effectiveness of hurricane response.
New Orleans appears to be the second American city to prepare a gun sales ban as part of a state of emergency, following Champaign, Illinois.
New Orleans police have been seen dispersing crowds from the city’s bar district on Magazine Street, ordering citizens to return to their homes and hotels in the midst of the epidemic.
It’s unfortunate that city officials believe lawful exercise of the Second Amendment represents an imminent threat, especially in an era where the general population is concerned for their own safety and security.
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