A GREAT STORY FROM NEW ORLEANS

The Algiers Point militia put away its weapons Friday as Army soldiers patrolled the historic neighborhood across the Mississippi River from the French Quarter. But the band of neighbors who survived Hurricane Katrina and then fought off looters has not disarmed.

"Pit Bull Will Attack. We Are Here and Have Gun and Will Shoot," said the sign on Alexandra Boza's front porch. Actually, said the woman behind the sign, "I have two pistols." "I'm a part of the militia," Boza said. "We were taking the law into our own hands, but I didn't kill anyone." She did quietly open her front door and fire a warning shot one night when she heard a loud group of young men approaching her house.

About a week later, she said, she finally saw a New Orleans police officer on her street and told him she had guns. "He told me, 'Honey, I don't blame you,' " she said. The several dozen people who did not evacuate from Algiers Point said that for days after the storm, they did not see any police officers or soldiers but did see gangs of intruders. So they set up what might be the ultimate neighborhood watch. At night, the balcony of a beautifully restored Victorian house built in 1871 served as a lookout point.

"I had the right flank," Vinnie Pervel said. Sitting in a white rocking chair on the balcony, his neighbor, Gareth Stubbs, protected the left flank. They were armed with an arsenal gathered from the neighborhood: a shotgun, pistols, a flare gun and a Vietnam-era AK-47. They were backed up by Gregg Harris, who lives in the house with Pervel, and Pervel's 74-year-old mother, Jennie, who lives across Pelican Street from her son and is known in Algiers Point as "Miss P." Many nights, Miss P. had a .38-caliber pistol in one hand and rosary beads in the other.

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Ice cream man pulls gun on would be robber: "An ice cream man used a gun to scare off a potential robber in Vancouver, and police say he did the right thing. He's a salesman who packs heat along with his ice cream. 'This is the third year I've been in business,' Chris Sanders said. Along with his ice cream, before heading out, Sanders also grabs his gun. 'It's a Keltek .380,' Sanders said. It may seem odd for an ice cream man to be armed, but Sanders says the gun came in handy last Saturday. 'Right up here at the top of this bridge is where the guy flagged me down,' Sanders said. He pulled over, but instead of ice cream the man wanted a ride. Sanders said no. 'As he was walking away he turned and ran towards my vehicle trying to go in through the sliding door which was locked. At that point I grabbed for my .380, chambered a round. Then he'd already come in the window. I pointed it at him and he said, 'Oh s***,' and he takes off running.'"