07 March 2006

HB36: do nothing feel good legislation

la state representative matthew schneider (r) slidell

so, representative schneider prefiles house bill 36 ostensibly to prohibit the taking of our firearms during a declared state of emergency. apparantly this is schneider's lame answer to orleans mayor nagin's order to seize the peoples firearms during the katrina disaster. see Contempt Motion Filed Against New Orleans Mayor, Police Chief for some background.

according to the wording of schneider's bill:

Nothing under this or any other provision of law shall authorize the seizure or confiscation of a firearm from any person unless that person is unlawfully carrying or in unlawful possession of that firearm.

and therein lies the rub because in louisiana we already need a permit to lawfully carry a concealed weapon. so lets suppose you are (god forbid) in a disaster area and you have to leave the area you are in to get to a safe place so you pick up your pistol or whatever to have with you because you dont know what kind of people you will meet out there. well you are in violation of the law because you dont have a concealed carry permit. law enforcement can still can take your weapon.

so this law does nothing. its just a feel good piece of crap thats not worth the paper its written on. schneider obviously filed this bill in order to go to his constituents to make it look like he is doing something when in reality this bill does nothing.

the reasonable thing to do would be to introduce a bill suspending the concealed carry law [RS 40:1379.3] during times of emergency.

representative schneider gets our doofus of the year award.