look ma, no arms

Dave Kopel thinks poorly of the decision to disarm the citizens of New Orleans. In fact, he thinks it’s illegal. I think his argument for the legality is probably shakey, deriving from a distinction between “regulating” and “prohibiting” which I think is a little less clear-cut than he seems to think, but I am no constitutional lawyer. He also takes a cheap crotch-shot at Nagin (“The good gun-owning citizens of New Orleans and the surrounding areas ought to be thanked for helping to save some of their city after Mayor Nagin, incoherent and weeping, had fled to Baton Rouge. “). But by and large, I agree with him – I think the decision to disarm the population is hasty and unnecessary, and will waste time and resources that could be spend rescuing people, rather than disarming them.