[Vlad The Inhaler]

How long before some democrat proposes a law banning any non-government group from providing disaster assistance?

[Army Air Corps]

“You are not authorized to rescue these people! You must wait for the arrival of the duly authorized rescuers!”

[jiggyboy]

How long before some democrat proposes a law banning any non-government group from providing disaster assistance?

This is already the case in California according to the laws on the books restricting unlicensed contractors. The law says that most construction jobs where the total of labor plus materials is more than $500 must be done by a licensed contractor.

There is no separation of labor and materials in that $500 total. If materials alone are more than $500, the law applies. That would mean that a guy who's done a good job installing hardwood in his own house couldn't do one room of somebody else's house even if he worked for free.

[spintreebob]

Government hates competition. Why, next thing you know, them cajuns will be delivering mail.

[caligatrux]

How long before some democrat proposes a law banning any non-government group from providing disaster assistance?

They won't do it by law, at first. They'll wait until some civilian rescue goes wrong in a public way. It's bound to happen that when these big flotillas of people go out to help, some very very small percentage of them will be glory-seekers, idiots or worse.

Eventually, there will be an accident or a scandal caught live on-air, something the mainstream media can exploit. There will be lots of microphones shoved into lots of government officials' faces asking why they let such a tragedy happen.

The failed rescuer will be arrested, his name dragged through the mud. Then there will be a lawsuit, and they'll drag in the homeowners, boat and car insurance of the failed rescuer. The failed rescuer will get hit with some massive judgment with multi-million dollar liability. Maybe the judgment will be overturned on appeal, but all people will remember is the millions of dollars. Then the insurance companies will start making it clear that getting involved in any of these activities voids your policies.

The government will start issuing warnings and advisories to "protect" people from civilian rescuers, etc. National guard will start deploying to stop civilian rescuers for their own "safety" and to stop them from "interfering" with "legitimate" rescue efforts, etc.

Like most things, it will be a huge, unnecessary government response to a problem that only arises 0.01% of the time in an otherwise very important and very necessary thing, but the government will ultimately use it to facilitate their own purposes, requesting additional funds and resources, increasing their authority, etc.