Run on guns in New Orleans: Post-Katrina crime wave sparks sales
Date: Mar 24, 2007 10:01 AM
PUBLICATION: Calgary Herald
DATE: 2007.03.24
EDITION: Final
SECTION: News
PAGE: A20
DATELINE: NEW ORLEANS
SOURCE: The Associated Press
WORD COUNT: 321

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Run on guns in New Orleans: Post-Katrina crime wave sparks sales

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Sixty-four-year-old Vivian Westerman rode out hurricane Katrina in her
19th-century house. So terrible was the experience that she wanted two
things before the 2006 season arrived: a backup power source and a gun.

“I got a 6,000-watt generator and the cutest little Smith and Wesson,
snub-nose .38 you ever saw,” she boasted. “I’ve never been more
confident.”

People across New Orleans are arming themselves — not only against the
possibility of another storm bringing anarchy, but against the violence
that has engulfed the metropolitan area in the 19 months since Katrina,
making New Orleans the nation’s murder capital.

The number of permits issued to carry concealed weapons is running twice
as high as it was before Katrina — this, in a city with only about half
its pre-storm population of around 450,000. Attendance at firearms
classes and hours logged at shooting ranges also are up, according to
the gun industry.

Gun dealers who saw sales shoot up during the chaotic few months after
Katrina say sales are still brisk, and the customers are a cross-section
of the population — doctors, lawyers, bankers, artists, laborers,
stay-at-home moms.

“People are in fear of their lives. They’re looking for ways to feel
safe again,” said Mike Roniger, manager of Gretna Gunworks in Jefferson
Parish.

Citizens, the tourism industry, police and politicians officials have
been alarmed by the wave of killings in New Orleans, with 162 in 2006
and 37 so far this year.

A Tulane University study put the city’s 2006 homicide rate at 96
slayings per 100,000 people, the highest in the United States.

National Guardsmen and state police are patrolling the streets of New
Orleans. In neighbouring Jefferson Parish, which posted a record 66
homicides in 2006, the sheriff sent armoured vehicles to protect
high-crime neighbourhoods.

In New Orleans, police have accused the district attorney of failing to
prosecute many suspects. Prosecutors have accused the police of not
bringing them solid cases.

In New Orleans, the number of concealed-carry permits issued jumped from
432 in 2003-04 to 832 in 2005-06. In Jefferson Parish, 522 permits were
issued in 2003-04, and 1,362 in 2005-06.

The Second Amendment IS Homeland Security !