Earlier today, The Federalist Papers Project reported that the US territory of the Virgin Islands has decided to use the impending threat of Hurricane Irma as a pretext to authorize the military to confiscate guns and ammo from residents, among other “property that may be required by the military forces for the performance of this emergency mission.” Now, the National Rifle Association is fighting back.
The Daily Caller reports that the NRA has announced plans to challenge the order by Virgin Islands governor Kenneth Mapp in court — and history suggests they’ll win easily.
“People need the ability to protect themselves during times of natural disaster,” said Chris W. Cox, executive director of the National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action. “This dangerous order violates the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens and puts their lives at risk” […]
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“When 911 is non-existent and law enforcement personnel are overwhelmed with search-and-rescue missions and other emergency duties, law-abiding American citizens must be able to protect their families and loved ones. The NRA is prepared to pursue legal action to halt Gov. Mapp’s dangerous and unconstitutional order,” Cox said.
As the Daily Caller’s Kerry Picket notes, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin attempted to do the same thing in the 2005 aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The NRA intervened there, too, and as a result a federal court put a stop to the gun confiscations and ordered all the confiscated guns to be returned to their rightful owners.
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In fact, the incident inspired Congress to pass legislation expressly forbidding the confiscation of legally-owned firearms during emergencies, and former President George W. Bush signed it into law. That means this time around, the NRA’s legal team will have a clear statutory answer on their side in addition to judicial precedent (because these days, apparently that thing called the Second Amendment just isn’t enough).
One has to marvel at how the powers-that-be of the Virgin Islands thought they were going to get away with this. As TFPP’s Seth Connell put it earlier today:
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What is this a third world country, where the State can declare that one’s rights are abrogated by a force of nature by executive fiat? The order itself reads like something from a Communist dictator rather than an American governing official […]
This order is simply authoritarian, there is no other way to describe it. There can be “rules” and “guidelines,” but at the end of the day the people’s rights and property are under blatant attack. By executive fiat, the Governor not only authorizes confiscation of firearms and ammunition, but also directs them to do it.
The closest thing that comes to mind as any sort of basis is the Constitution’s allowance of seizing property during a rebellion or invasion, which you may recall was President Abraham Lincoln’s authorization for the Emancipation Proclamation declaring the South’s slaves to be free. But even that was limited to seizing the rebels’ property (which is the explanation for the often-misunderstood fact that the proclamation didn’t free Northern slaves); there’s no basis for applying that authority to natural disasters, and certainly no basis for applying it to the people authorities are trying to protect.
It’s easy to think the Left is ascendant in basically every facet of American life, and tragically that’s true for the most part. But it’s nice to see the occasional reminder that they can still overplay their hand, and it can still blow up in their faces.
