"Red Flag" Laws Reduce Safety
Identify and enrage people ready to kill. Then set them loose?
Take their guns, but leave them everything else, and free.
What crazy victim feels safer like that?
The lamestream media told you:
USA Today Editorial, a few positive points: Red-flag laws let police confiscate guns without due process. Suspending the Constitution in a secret hearing is a point from which there is no return.
To listen to the media's anti-rights drumbeat, no one does -- or could -- oppose the concept of stripping Americans of their constitutional rights in secret proceedings where they have no voice.
But this is exactly what is at stake with Gun Confiscation Orders -- cynically disguised as "red flag laws."
Six states have enacted these laws. At their core, they allow the police to convene a Kafkaesque secret proceeding, in which an American can be stripped of gun rights and Fourth Amendment rights, even though gun owners are barred from participating in the hearings or arguing their side of the dispute. --Michael Hammond, opinion writer, USA Today
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2018/04/19/red-flag-laws-strip-gun-rights-violate-constitution-column/526221002/
Support from the “news” section:
Red Flag Laws Gain Momentum In States -- USA Today, Washington -- States across the country are taking a closer look at “red flag” laws... The laws allow family members or law enforcement to seek a court order to temporarily restrict people's access to firearms when they show "red flags" that they are a danger to themselves or others.
Florida became the sixth state to pass a red-flag law, and other state lawmakers introduced a flurry of new bills, including first-time legislation in more than a handful of states, according to Everytown for Gun Safety, a gun control advocacy group. Bills are now pending in 22 states and the District of Columbia, while bipartisan efforts are coming together in Congress ... getting more attention now as students protest legislative inaction on gun violence... “those bills across the country are taking on renewed significance... What can we do to make sure this doesn’t happen here?” according to a gun-control spokesperson.
Though supporters say the bills can prevent tragedies, critics say they have the potential to deprive gun owners of due process and their Second Amendment rights.
“gun violence restraining order” or “extreme risk protection order” to temporarily restrict a person’s access to firearms. The judge can issue an emergency, temporary order -- without the gun owner being present -- to prevent immediate danger. But a full hearing must be scheduled quickly, offering the gun owner the ability to respond.
The Uninvited Ombudsman notes however that:
RED FLAG LAWS ARE SUBTLE BUT SEDUCTIVE SCAM
Little more than another left-wing expression of gun fear,
and a typically dangerous, reckless, negligent idea.
“A person too dangerous to touch guns
is too dangerous to be walking around.”
The only reason this law is being floated is to provide another avenue for the anti-rights advocates to restrict gun possession. And to quiet the tantrum being thrown by children nationally. It is not a rational approach to a problem that already has solutions available, and unused.
People who want guns to “just go away,” irrationally believing this red-flagging power will somehow increase safety. They see this type of law as a saving grace, when in fact it does harm. By identifying seriously dangerous individuals and setting these ticking time bombs free it is actually counterproductive.
Red-flag laws seek to leave extremely dangerous people out loose after they are identified. This virtually defines insanity. The counter argument is that they're not really that dangerous. Then how to justify the taking of property and denial of rights without trial in secret.
The only thing going for this law, in the minds of its creators, is it creates a new category of prohibited people. Gunlessness is a holy grail they pursue so tenaciously defies logic and reason -- now for people so dangerous they really should not be allowed matches and gasoline, anything available at Home Depot, motor vehicles -- in short, they cannot be allowed out into the public until they are “cured,” however these absurd red-flag laws define that. Who would ever risk restoring the rights of someone stigmatized by a red-flag designation is unclear.
The coincidence between red flags and communism is just coincidence, according to leading experts.
Red Flag bills, separate problem
“Then, of course, there is the problem of so-called "gun-free zones," of which the schools where our children spend much of their day are the largest and most obvious. How many times does a lunatic with a gun have to show up in one of these so-called "gun-free zones" before we grasp the fact that they are not "gun free" at all?
“The only people free of guns are the people getting killed trying to protect our children from psychopaths. Despite the protests of those ostensibly on the side of disarming everyone, you will note that every time one of these armed lunatics has arrived and started killing, the inevitable response of the gun deniers has been to call people with guns to come and handle the problem.
“Do we fail to understand the simple reality that having people with guns already there, and ready to respond when the event takes place, is a better option? Do we fail to understand that pretending a place is a "gun-free zone" when it so clearly is not, only results in the deaths of innocents, while also telling psychopaths where the easy targets are?” --Dave Kopp, President, AzCDL
OK, playing Devil's advocate for a moment, court's issue warrants to seize property all the time in just the kind of hearings you are talking about. You do not get your day in court until after your property is removed.
My concern is the potential and actual abuse. In CA's system, a second hearing to hear they "defendants" side is automatically scheduled within 21 days. In 2016, 89 of these orders were issued. In 79 cases, the order was lifted at that hearing. In other words, even though we are talking about California - over 90% of these orders were found to be groundless.
Doctors for Responsible Gun Ownership has issued minimum guidelines for such laws to at least provide for due process, protection of seized firearms and penalties for abuse of the system.
I also believe that the standard of proof should be beyond a reasonable doubt - not a preponderance of the evidence.
Having said all that, as a first responder, I think the focus should be on finding and committing dangerous people - not simply removing their firearms.
Posted by: Rev R Vincent Warde | Thursday, April 26, 2018 at 05:53 PM