The Modernize NC Emergency Management Act was discussed in House Judiciary Subcommittee A on May 18th. This legislation was developed as a consequence of the abuse of power by the local government in King, NC in February, 2010 as outlined in the following video and too broad of an interpretation in the existing legislation. Chairman Blust’s prefacing comments concerning protecting the legislators from radicals in attendance was hopefully made in jest but I hope that these videos detailing committee hearings is starting to have an impact.
The interesting part of the following video is the definition of what constitutes a dangerous weapon in a state of emergency. The reasoning for this part of the law is supposedly to prevent looters from carrying firearms (or ammunition). As demonstrated in hurricane Andrew, the only people who did not have their homes looted were the people who were armed.
Hopefully, the future will not show us which side is right.
David DeGerolamo
