The gun-hating American Left has devised a new way to come after as many legally owned firearms as possible: Declare their owners mentally unstable and thus a threat to society.
So-called “red flag laws” are currently springing up everywhere that Democrats have power. Such laws are improperly hyped as “common sense” ordinances aimed at improving “public safety.” This, from the same party that would rather see the government shut down than agree to a measly $5 billion in border wall funding for the current budget year.
As noted by Philip Van Cleave at Ammoland, a site which has been tracking these laws, the passage of red flag laws — which have already led to the deaths of citizens, he says — depends largely upon “duping people into thinking the proposed law is constitutional and will stop criminals.”
The laws, which are also routinely called Gun Violence Restraining Orders or Extreme Risk Protection Orders, are really nothing more than gun confiscation done under the guise of legality. They are most often described as “gun violence protection” ordinances that are 'designed' to keep citizens ‘safe.’ Van Cleave says they are currently being pushed hard on the state and federal level by Leftists who know they can’t simply ban guns because of the pesky Second Amendment.
He writes:
Red Flag laws are unconstitutional “prior restraint” laws that violate our basic civil rights. What's particularly alarming is that to take away a person's Second Amendment rights, such laws violate the protections found in the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution! And all of that based on an unnamed person's secret allegation that someone else “might” do something dangerous to themselves or others in the future.
Under our legal system, laws are supposed to direct authorities to apprehend and punish people, if they are found guilty, for committing bona fide illegal acts — not those who some believe are capable of committing an illegal act or an act of violence.
What’s more, our legal system most definitely was not established to persecute citizens based on allegations alone, especially if they have never been substantiated. (Related: Texas Democrats trying to pass “red flag” laws that would strip away Second Amendment rights without any trial or due process.)
These laws are blatantly unconstitutional because they don’t require a criminal act for police to respond
Red flag laws empower the state to label someone as “dangerous” based solely on the recommendation of a friend, family member, or other acquaintance. The person being charged does not know they’ve been charged because they are absent from the court proceedings. Most often they only find out after police arrive at their place of residence, sometimes with guns drawn during pre-dawn raids, to confiscate their otherwise legally owned guns.
No trial. No conviction. Just an allegation of a potentially criminal act, and perhaps by someone who has an ax to grind or a grudge to settle against the person being accused and stripped of their Second Amendment rights.
As noted, Van Cleave says at least one American citizen has already been killed in Maryland when police attempted to enforce a red flag law. According to Fox 45:
Police say Gary J. Willis, who was the subject of the Extreme Risk Protective Order and the Emergency Petition, answered the door armed with a handgun. The Red Flag Law went into effect on October 1 and allows judges to create protective orders against a gun owner who has displayed certain threatening behaviors.
The suspect, Gary J. Willis, was shot allegedly because he became irate with officers who attempted to physically disarm him and his gun discharged. He died at the scene.
It’s very possible that police were legitimately threatened in this instance, but the anti-gun media will cherry-pick these kinds of circumstances all day and report on them.
But the basic truth is this: Our legal system should never permit these kinds of “you might do something” laws. They fly in the face of “innocent until proven guilty.” And they are insults to the Second Amendment.
Read more about how the Left is working to take away more guns at Guns.news.
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