Taking personal safety in hand.(EXERCISING THE RIGHT)

In areas hard hit by Hurricane Katrina, lawlessness was rampant. Looters were unabashedly robbing businesses and houses, taking advantage of the fact that most police, the ones who hadn't quit the job altogether, were busy helping with rescue and relief efforts. The people who were not being victimized were those who were armed and watching out for themselves.

Although the government abandoned honest New Orleans' citizens in the immediate aftermath of the hurricane, leaving them to defend themselves, it is now seizing firearms from citizens, without regard to individuals' rights or personal needs.

Be Armed or Be Victimized

In Pascagoula, Mississippi, Nanette Clark and her friend Jayne Davis were at Clark's house to move furniture upstairs in case the house flooded. On Tuesday night following the storm, they were on the second story balcony when they were forced to shoot at looters to dissuade them from having their way, according to the Charlotte (North Carolina) Observer.

Likewise, in New Orleans, several young men brandishing a knife and a machete demanded John Carolyn's portable generator. He scared them off by shooting over their heads with a pistol. Carolyn told the New York Times, "You've heard of law west of the Pecos. This is law west of Canal Street."

Down the street from Carolyn, reports Canada.com, stood Charlie Hackett. He is a Vietnam veteran, and he, like Carolyn, decided to watch over the neighborhood. He maintained a vigil each night holding his 12-gauge shotgun. He said that it's not hard to stay awake while on guard duty. Each night he heard gunshots and people walking through. (His neighborhood was largely not flooded.) He said that the nights were "black, black, black" and that they reminded him of Dac To in Vietnam.

Also in New Orleans, Paul Cosmos carried more than one gun while guarding his auto repair shop as "a steady trickle of looters came and went" from nearby businesses, according to the New York Times.