The Problem With Red Flag Laws

 

One of the things in the new gun legislation being proposed is Red Flag laws. Red flag laws authorize law enforcement to confiscate all firearms from an individual if they (law enforcement) suspect the gun owner is mentally ill or percieved to be a threat to someone or to the community. This confiscation would be done without due process based on only the law enforcement agency's disgression. This is wrong.

Last year, parents concerned about curricula in public schools began speaking out at public school board meetings. The main issue for parents was gender identity issues and graphic sexual content being taught to children in public schools, most particularly elementary school children. Many meetings got heated when school board leaders refused to allow parents to speak their minds. A few meetings had incidents of violence with at least one father being arrested after refusing to leave a meeting, and some threats were made in anger.

At some point the National School Board Association wrote a six page letter to the Department of Education calling protesters domestic terrorists and accusing them of hate crimes. The letter was given to the Justice Department. Attorney General Merrick Garland, while not actually validating the labels publicly, ordered the FBI and U.S. Attorneys nationwide to investigate protesting parents and "find ways they can work to prevent violence and threats.

If a parent is labeled a domestic terrorist by the Justice Department for speaking angrily to a school board, red flag laws would allow law enforcement to confiscate any firearms they might own and it would be up to the individual to get them back through court proceedings. In other words... guilty, without charges or trial, until they can prove otherwise, which is unconstitutional.

Red flag laws would also allow law enforcement to confiscate weapons from an individual whom someone else (family member, ex-spouse, angry neighbor, etc.) reports as being mentally unstable... again, without due process.

I have no issue with firearms being taken away (temporarily) from a demonstrably mentally ill person if mental health professionals and judges are willing to put their names on documentation saying a person's firearms need to be temporarily removed because the person has legally been declared mentally unstable and a threat to himself/herself and/or others. Some will disagree with me but that's at least a legal baseline that has been established, allowing for due process to proceed.

Many people in this country already believe that most law enforcement officials  abuse their power daily yet they would allow law enforcement to apply red flag laws at their discretion. That defies logic.