By Dave Workman
Senior Editor
Ray Nagin, the anti-gun former mayor of New Orleans who presided over the post-Hurricane Katrina gun grab that was stopped by a federal lawsuit filed by the Second Amendment Foundation and National Rifle Association, has been sentenced to ten years in prison on charges of corruption during his administration.
A fone-time member of Michael Bloomberg’s Mayors Against Illegal Guns, Nagin is one of several former mayors involved in that group who have been convicted of serious crimes. That list also includes former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, another Democrat, who was sent to prison for corruption.
Nagin received a lighter sentence than had been sought by prosecutors under sentencing guidelines, and the New York Times suggested that this could set up an appeal.
The post-hurricane gun confiscations began almost immediately after the storm subsided in 2005. During one press briefing, a New Orleans police official announced that nobody would be allowed to have firearms. Videos of one gun confiscation, from an older woman who had ridden out the storm, raced across the internet because she was body slammed by two burly cops visiting from California who had traveled to the city to help restore order.
SAF and NRA began working on the landmark legal action almost immediately after the confiscations began. By some estimates, more than 1,100 firearms were taken by police and National Guard units, without warrant, due processor probable cause.
It is the memory of that legal battle that inspired SAF founder Alan Gottlieb, who also serves as chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, to include a prohibition on such gun confiscations in Initiative 591. That Washington State measure is on November’s ballot. It also mandates that background checks done in the state comply with a uniform national standard.
An alternative measure, I-594, requires so-called “universal background checks,” and it goes far beyond federal requirements. Gun rights advocates contend that it expands the state’s pistol registry, and criminalizes traditional activities such as loaning firearms to friends and family members for hunting, target shooting and other legitimate uses.
Nagin was arrested in January 2013 and convicted earlier this year. He left office in 2010, five years after the devastating hurricane, but the city’s recovery took up most of his second term, during which much of the corruption occurred.
The sentence was handed down by U.S. District Judge Helen Berrigan. He could have been confined for much longer under sentencing guidelines that range up to 20 years. But the judge cited character references in her decision. Yet, Nagin denied any wrongdoing during the trial, even to the point of refusing to recognize his own signature on certain documents.
By some accounts, Nagin was believed to have taken as much as a half-million dollars as his share of profits from the corruption scandal. However, one report said he is in “financial ruin” today, indicating that he may have a tough time paying the $82,000 fine that is also part of his sentence.
Many if not most of the firearms that were confiscated by authorities following the hurricane were left to rust and corrode in storage containers. Initially, the city denied having taken anyone’s guns, but attorneys for SAF and NRA moved for contempt because of the city’s deliberate foot-dragging, and ultimately were shown the confiscated guns.
While the federal court ordered the confiscations halted, nobody was ever held accountable for issuing the confiscation order. The incident did allow the NRA to hammer hard against the notion that such confiscations could never happen in America.
