By Jeff Knox
The repercussions from Hurricane Katrina continue to roll in like the tidal surge that flooded New Orleans. The latest storm takes aim at guns and gunowners. As news trickles out of a final resolution in the lawsuits filed over the government’s illegal confiscation of firearms during the days after the flood, new reports of unprovoked attacks on African-Americans by white, neighborhood militias during the storm’s aftermath are beginning to surface. In a feature article in the liberal magazine “The Nation,” titled “Katrina’s Hidden Race War,” writer A. C. Thompson suggests that a group organized to provide security for the Algiers Point neighborhood actually engaged in open warfare against unarmed, innocent blacks trying to reach an evacuation point on the other side of the neighborhood. In the article, Thompson combines first-person accounts of the victims of one attack, the statements of members of the neighborhood security group, African-American residents of the Algiers Point neighborhood, records from area hospitals, the coroner’s office, and generous helpings of hearsay and speculation to suggest that members of the security group engaged in racially motivated murder.
If there is any truth in these accusations, the perpetrators should be rooted out and punished. The Second Amendment is about defense of person, community, and country, not sport-hunting of humans. Anyone who accepts the responsibility of carrying a gun also accepts the responsibility of using it wisely. Governor Bobby Jindal should immediately launch a full investigation to either condemn or exonerate the members of the Algiers Point Militia.