By Chad D. Baus

On Tuesday, the United States House of Representatives voted 402-23 for H.R. 5013, legislation that bars federal officials or local law enforcement agents that get federal money from confiscating legally owned firearms during a natural disaster.

A separate bill preventing the use of federal funds for the confiscation of lawfully possessed firearms during an emergency or major disaster passed the United States Senate with a final vote margin of 84-16 earlier this month.

The House action received coverage today in the New Orleans Picayune:

The bill's sponsor, Rep. Bobby Jindal, R-Kenner, said he wants to avoid a repeat of occurrences during Hurricane Katrina when he said he heard dozens of reports about guns being taken from law-abiding citizens.

These citizens, Jindal told his House colleagues, were left in mostly abandoned neighborhoods in New Orleans without phones or the ability to summon police amid looting and general lawlessness. "They were left defenseless," he said.

Also from the Associated Press:

The Fraternal Order of Police endorsed the measure. In a letter to Jindal, National President Chuck Canterbury said that law enforcement officials concentrate on search and rescue during major disasters and that breakdowns in communications and transportation can lengthen police response times to calls.

"A law-abiding citizen who possesses a firearm lawfully represents no danger to law enforcement officers or any other first responder," Canterbury wrote.

The National Rifle Association also supported the bill and has been asking police chiefs and mayors to pledge that they will not forcibly disarm law-abiding citizens.

Assuming Congress sends a bill to President Bush, this should eliminate the need for Rep. Ron Hood's Ohio House Bill 508, right? WRONG.

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