Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Bill blocks seizure of guns during disasters

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published July 26, 2006

WASHINGTON - The House voted Tuesday to prevent law enforcement officers from confiscating legally owned guns during a national disaster or emergency.

Republican Rep. Bobby Jindal, the Louisiana lawmaker who sponsored the bill, said firearms seizures after Hurricane Katrina left residents unable to defend themselves.

"Many of them were sitting in their homes without power, without water, without communication," he said.

The House voted 322-99 in support of the bill. Senators voted 84-16 earlier this month to include a similar prohibition in a homeland security funding bill.

The Fraternal Order of Police endorsed the measure. In a letter to Jindal, national president Chuck Canterbury said law enforcement officials concentrate on search and rescue during disasters, and breakdowns in communications can lengthen police response times to calls.

The bill would apply to federal law enforcement, military officers and local police.

The Florida Legislature passed a similar bill during this year's session, which prevents the state governor from ordering the confiscation of firearms during hurricanes.

Phone records lawsuit dismissed

Citing national security, a federal judge Tuesday threw out a lawsuit aimed at blocking AT&T from giving telephone records to the government for use in the war on terror.

"The court is persuaded that requiring AT&T to confirm or deny whether it has disclosed large quantities of telephone records to the federal government could give adversaries of this country valuable insight into the government's intelligence activities," U.S. District Judge Matthew F. Kennelly said.

A number of such lawsuits have been filed around the country after reports that AT&T and other phone companies had turned records over to the National Security Administration, which specializes in communications intercepts.

Kennelly's ruling was in sharp contrast to last week's decision from U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker of San Francisco, who said media reports of the program were so widespread there was no danger of spilling secrets.

Kennelly ruled in a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois on behalf of activists who said their constitutional rights were violated because of an NSA program of gathering phone company records.

[Last modified July 26, 2006, 01:40:16]