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(CNSNews.com) -- Few people objected when police began gathering firearms they found in abandoned New Orleans homes, to prevent them from falling into the hands of criminals. But one gun policy expert says confiscating guns from law abiding citizens who remain in the city is increasing the danger posed by criminals.

New Orleans Police Superintendent P. Edwin Compass III explained Sept. 9 that the impending mandatory evacuation of the city was truly mandatory, this time, and that residents had to leave for their own safety.

"Individuals are at risk of dying," Compass told The New York Times. "There's nothing more important than the preservation of human life."

But many residents, whose neighborhoods were undamaged by either Hurricane Katrina or the resulting flooding, do not want to leave. Most fear looters will damage or destroy anything they cannot steal and some of those citizens have armed themselves.

New Orleans police and law enforcement officers from hundreds of other agencies assisting them found hundreds of firearms left behind by residents fleeing the hurricane who probably expected to return to their homes, and their guns, within a few days. The search for the abandoned guns began after criminals fired on police and U.S. Army and Coast Guard rescue helicopters.

City officials then announced that they would, at some point, begin forcibly removing residents who refused to leave the city. Compass explained that the gun confiscation order had also been expanded to include weapons possessed by law abiding citizens, even those with valid, state-issued concealed weapons permits.

"No one will be able to be armed," Compass told the Washington Post. "Guns will be taken. Only law enforcement will be allowed to have guns."

John Lott, resident scholar with the American Enterprise Institute and the author of "More Guns, Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun Control Laws," told Cybercast News Service that he is "very disappointed" with the decision by New Orleans leaders.

"The question is, 'Are the police there able to protect people?' And I think he would have to be one of the first to acknowledge that the police simply aren't capable of protecting the people who are there," Lott said. "One thing that this hurricane has shown is that people are ultimately forced to protect themselves. It would be nice if the police were available to go and protect everybody, but they're not."

Police were forced, Lott said, to choose between rescuing hurricane survivors and enforcing the law. The necessary choice, he believes, left unarmed residents defenseless.

"They just weren't able to do both and many people were falling victim to criminals," Lott argued, "You had roving gangs going around and it's not really clear what else you would have advised someone to do other than having a gun for protection."

Lott said he is also disappointed that police appear to be engaging in "selective" gun confiscation. After Compass expanded the original order, the New York Times reported that it, "apparently does not apply to the hundreds of security guards whom businesses and some wealthy individuals have hired to protect their property."

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