A handful of Republican senators have recently come out in favor of bipartisan gun control legislation that would strengthen or nationalize Red Flag laws. Proven RINOs Mitch McConnell and Mitt Romney lead the group in calls for a “compromise” with anti-gun Democrats after citing a poll during a GOP meeting which suggests over 79% of gun owning households support using Red Flag measures.
The specific poll has not been revealed to the public and its parameters are unknown, but it follows a pattern of conflicting numbers – Some suggest Republican support for new gun control laws has fallen, while others claim that there has been a dramatic rise in Republican support.
The latest gun control campaign has involved a laser focus on Red Flag laws in particular, and conservatives have been aggressively targeted by propaganda that omits certain truths about how such laws actually work. Most polls ask if participants “want laws to keep guns out of the hands of the mentally ill.” If you say yes, then the polls label you a supporter of Red Flag laws by default. But this is not what Red Flag laws accomplish and the details are carefully left out.
Laws already exist that deny gun purchases to the mentally ill, and this has long been part of the background check process. The requirement is that the person has been involuntarily committed to a psychiatric hospital and has been adjudicated mentally defective by a court of law. In other words, you have to be PROVEN mentally unstable in court to have your gun rights taken away. What Red Flag laws destroy is the right to this due process.
Red Flag laws are already active in some states and Federal level laws would likely expand on existing state restrictions. In most cases Red Flag laws allow gun rights to be taken away from an individual based solely on accusations made by person's close to the victim. If a report is made to police that you MIGHT be a danger to yourself and others then police can get a court order allowing them to seize your firearms immediately. Then, it is up to you to somehow prove that you are not crazy in order to get your firearms back.
In some legislation, local authorities can even seize your weapons on their own accord without a witness close to you making an accusation. It is essentially “pre-crime” authoritarianism, because it makes it legal for the government to take your rights based on hearsay rather than proof, and based on crimes you might commit rather than crimes you have committed. This has already happened on numerous occasions as American citizens are faced with false accusations that have lead to long court battles just to get their property back.
The great con is that certain GOP leaders (fake conservatives) are arguing that we must support Red Flag laws because they will help save us from more expansive gun control or bans down the road (keep in mind that there were also a handful of GOP politicians that said we should support covid vaccine passport laws). In reality, Red Flag laws are what the establishment has wanted all along; they are the perfect Trojan Horse for undermining constitutional protections. All they have to do is declare you mentally ill and a danger, for any reason they see fit, and now they have the option to raid your home and confiscate your property.
Imagine the amount of abuse that Red Flag laws make possible? Maybe your leftist neighbor doesn't like you and your MAGA flag? Maybe your ex-wife is vindictive and wants to harm you? Maybe local authorities just don't like your politics or you have done something which obstructs an agenda?
Remember when the federal government was collecting data on parents who spoke out at school board meetings against Critical Race Theory propaganda in the classrooms? This data collection was done under domestic terrorism provisions. Now imagine a country in which the feds or local government can act on these dossiers and punish parents as “potentially dangerous” terrorists or mentally unstable “conspiracy theorists.”
This is a scenario that will become reality should Red Flag laws become widely accepted or federally enforced. This is why gun rights advocates cannot compromise on anything ever again under any circumstances. Existing laws and background checks already cover these issues, and if a person is mentally unstable then they should be proven as such in a court of law before they have their rights rescinded. This is the law under the Constitution, and Red Flag provisions are a complete violation of the law.
If you support Red Flag laws, then you are hostile to the Bill of Rights and the 2nd Amendment. It's as simple as that.
Accusations and hearsay are irrelevant. And, acts of gun crime are irrelevant to the rights of people who have done nothing wrong. The perpetrator who committed mass murder in Texas, Salvador Ramos, has already been punished. He is dead. But gun control elitists want the option to punish everyone else for the crimes he committed. They want to exploit the deaths of innocent victims to gain more power over other innocent gun owners and likely their political enemies. This is unacceptable, and Red Flag laws are unacceptable. No compromise can be given to such people.
via zerohedge