We All Need To Be The Grey Man

Today at the American Partisan, the Gray Man has a post entitled Are The New "Red Flag" Laws The Gun Grab We've Been Warned About? Please read the entire post, as it is not a long one, but in a nut shell, the answer is "yes."

RFL allow the advance confiscation of firearms from a person’s property based on little more (or in some cases, nothing more) than someone, ANYONE, reporting to “authorities” that the person may have said, done or otherwise indicated at some point in time that they might be a danger to themselves or someone else at some point in time in the future. The law enforcement is able to obtain an extreme risk protection order (ERPO) and forcibly confiscate all firearms from that person.

Due process comes later. That’s the problem with the laws. You can have your guns taken away and be forced to undertake a lengthy and costly legal journey in order to get them back, all because someone accused you of being dangerous. They don’t have to have hard proof. They just need the “authorities” to believe them enough to do it.

Obviously the legal process of getting your guns back is the punishment in itself. That’s the whole point.

Also, obviously, your accuser could be anybody you have ever met, even briefly. Have an argument with your neighbor? He could "Red Flag" you in revenge. And of course, the woman scorned, or just imagining herself scorned, could use these laws as a further way to take revenge on a man. But even people living miles away from you, and whom you have never met may "Red Flag" you based on reading your name and address in a newspaper list. Remember when newspapers were publishing the names of people with concealed carry permits?

Make an angry, politically-charged Facebook post? A RFL can be used to confiscate your guns. It has happened.

Make a Twitter post that “authorities” interpret as being Islamophohic? A RFL can be used to confiscate your guns. It has happened.

You get in an argument with your woman and piss her off? A RFL can be used to confiscate your guns. It has happened.

Spare me the talking points on the legal limits of RFL at the present time. All they needed to do for now is get the laws into place. Rest assured they will be administratively and bureaucratically tweaked and adjusted so that it gets EASIER for the boys wearing the Oakleys to kick your door in, and those bureaucratic and administrative tweaks will make it harder and more expensive for you to get your guns back. Assuming that you ever get them back at all.

So, what is a gun owner to do?

All the talk that’s been had in your group about being quiet about your guns… Put that into action now. Ditch the NRA stickers, stop the good old boys gun discussions down at the local watering hole, remove the vanity pics from Facebook (why do you still have FB?). No one needs to know about your guns if they don’t live in your house. It won’t be easy to change those habits, but it’s time now. The legal framework for taking your guns away simply for being a wrong-thinker is in place. The local Kommissar has his eyes open and the police will follow their orders to knock on your door when they get the order.

Shhhh...we all need to be the grey man.