Armed Populous

"This is ridiculous. You work hard. You're trying to get out of there to save your family and you have people running around taking your stuff," said evacuee Pamela David. "It just doesn't make any sense to me at all. But we have our family here and that stuff can be replaced. That's why you have insurance. I got to let it go.". "It's horrible. It's just horrible that somebody would actually break into your house when you are trying to get your family to safety," said evacuee Lisa Allen. KTRK

There are a bunch of really evil people out there.

Chaos spread across New Orleans along with the brown, toxic floodwater in the early hours of yesterday morning, and the thousands of stragglers still trapped awoke to find themselves in a city with few laws, little mercy, and no clear way out. The police seemed to have all but evaporated in the course of a night of looting and gunfire, in which at least one police officer was badly injured. A few camouflaged national guard trucks could be seen moving through the downtown area in convoy, but there were no guardsmen on the streets to deal with the wreckage of the city. ... "It was like a war zone here. There was shooting and looting, and I saw people beating women; it's fucking ugly," said a man with bare, tattooed arms, carrying an empty water canister. He identified himself only as Jason, pointing out he had been in trouble with the law himself. "I'm just trying to get to a bus stop so I can get out of here. Which way are you going?" he wanted to know. ... "The police said you were on your own," Ms James said. "If you're not in the Super dome, you're on your own." ... "As if water worries weren't enough ... now the looting is becoming extremely serious. In Uptown, one the few areas that remained dry, a bearded man patrolled Oak Street near the boarded-up Maple Leaf Bar, a sawed-off shotgun slung over his shoulder. The owners of a hardware store sat in folding chairs, pistols at the ready. They broke into the Shell station across the street. I walked over with my 12-gage and shot a couple into the air.' A supply store sported spray-painted signs reading "You Loot, I Shoot". Guardian

This news among the dozens of blogs talking about how frightening the atmosphere feels in the city tells me that there is indeed a reason for law-abiding citizens of this country to be aloud by their own government to own firearms. I just might join the NRA again. It looks like we are all one hurricane from bedlam in our own home towns.