01:40 PM CDT on Friday, June 9, 2006

WWLTV.com

People carrying guns on the streets of New Orleans during an emergency will be stopped but their gun won’t be taken unless they can’t show that they are lawfully in possession of it, Chief Warren Riley said Thursday night on WWL’s INews cast.

File / WWL-TV

New Orleans Police Superintendent Warren Riley.

Trying to clear up something that has been the subject of much controversy since Katrina, Riley said that in another emergency situation, officers would check people on the street in possession of guns and will not take the weapons unless they have a criminal record, are mentally ill, or unable to prove they own the weapon.

“They have a right to carry the guns, but they have to prove it is theirs,” said Riley.

Riley also disputed accounts that police had gone into homes and disarmed residents.

Riley said that police did go into homes that had been abandoned or damaged after Katrina and, in the process of looking for survivors, took weapons that he said could be picked up by looters.

According to Riley, the police had 900 weapons in their evidence room and that between 600-700 were turned in by other law enforcement agencies.