Why Red Flag Laws Are Not The Answer

I haven't spoken up about the red flag laws lately. In part that is because other issues have intruded. But it also seems as if no one is heeding the fact that these laws are unconstitutional. The take away due process, violating the 4th, 6th and of course 2nd Amendments. Nonetheless, now 19 states and the District of Corruption er Columbia have some form of red flag laws. But these laws are used capriciously and have done very little to prevent mass shootings. But red flag laws are also extremely vulnerable to abuse by bad actors.

In a piece at the American Thinker today, entitled Red Flag Laws Subvert Due Process and Ignore Psychiatric Drugging Issues Jessica Geraghty tells us:

I asked Mark Oliva, Managing Director of Public Affairs for the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), what his thoughts are on red flag laws. “The NSSF is never opposed to red flag laws so long as those laws have due process rights and protections written into them,” says Oliva. “The difficulty is that [out of] the 19 states and the District of Columbia that have those laws right now, none of them have due process rights and protections written into them.”

Oliva provides a hypothetical example of a woman whose abuser calls authorities and reports that she is suicidal so her firearm should be taken away. Under the current red flag laws some states have, while she is awaiting procedural due process, she would be unarmed and unable to protect herself and therefore vulnerable to the abuser. Oliva also points to the failure of authorities in these states that do have red flag laws to utilize them properly to remove firearms from the possession of individuals such as the shooter in Buffalo, New York. Oliva points out that the Buffalo shooter Payton Gendron was never given a mental health hearing after his family expressed concerns about his erratic behavior and therefore was still allowed to have the firearm in his possession. Oliva points out that despite these failures to properly enforce the laws these states already have, there are louder and louder cries for more gun control.

We have already seen police kill "Red Flagged individuals" while serving red flag orders. Indeed, this is because they are often not a party to these orders, so are dumb founded when served. One can see this happening all the time. Indeed, some laws are so vague that any member of the public who discovers that you own guns can slap a red flag order on you. And you have no defense. The real purpose of red flag laws is to give gun grabbers an additional tool to confiscate guns from law abiding gun owners.

Red Flag laws are not made in good faith. If they were, they wouldn't violate so many Constitutionally guaranteed rights. There is literally no emergency that allows the suspension of our Constitutional rights. If there were, our betters would have long ago suspended them. Please go read Geraghty's article.