Red Flag Laws; What Are They? Do They Violate Your Rights?
Guns are once again in the news. We have had more recent “mass shootings” here in the United States, and it has caused a lot of panic. They tell us that guns, and their manufacturers, dealers, and even the NRA are responsible, not just for the mass shootings, but every instance of gun violence in America, even suicides; but now they say that guns are responsible for crimes that haven’t even happened yet…and that’s where these so-called Red Flag Laws come in.
So What Are Red Flag Laws?
“Red Flag” Laws, allow someone to obtain a special protection order from a judge, (sometimes called a restraining order,) that will allow the police to confiscate a person’s guns, if it’s determined that the person could be a danger to themselves or others.
A variety of these relatively new laws have been popping up, in a lot of bills from many different states. The New York Times said at least 17 states have now adopted one type or another of these laws:
How many states have one now?
HOW MANY STATES HAVE ONE NOW?
– New York Times
AT LEAST 17 STATES NOW HAVE APPROVED SOME VERSION OF A RED FLAG LAW, INCLUDING FLORIDA, NEW YORK, CONNECTICUT, ILLINOIS, INDIANA AND CALIFORNIA. BEFORE THE 2018 MASS SHOOTING AT MARJORY STONEMAN DOUGLAS HIGH SCHOOL IN PARKLAND, FLA., ONLY FIVE STATES HAD SUCH LAWS.
CALIFORNIA’S LAW IS AMONG THE MOST ELABORATE. IT WAS THE FIRST TO PERMIT FAMILY MEMBERS TO PETITION THE COURTS DIRECTLY FOR ORDERS TO CONFISCATE WEAPONS FROM RELATIVES. EARLIER LAWS IN CONNECTICUT AND OTHER STATES GENERALLY REQUIRED THE PUBLIC TO MAKE REPORTS TO PROSECUTORS OR THE POLICE, WHO WOULD DECIDE WHETHER TO PETITION THE COURTS. CALIFORNIA’S LAW WAS ENACTED AFTER A GUNMAN KILLED SIX PEOPLE AND WOUNDED 14 OTHERS IN 2014 NEAR THE CAMPUS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SANTA BARBARA.
It sounds reasonable to a lot of people; even on the republican side of the aisle. After all, a lot of these shooters had had “red flags” in their behavior months, or sometimes years, before they carried out their heinous crimes.
So, why not allow friends or family, who notice these flags, to call the athorities and have their guns taken away from them? It’s called preemptive prosecution, stopping crimes before they happen…sounds great right?
Have you ever seen that Tom Cruise movie, “Minority Report”? *spoiler alert*- It didn’t work out too well.
As the website “Reason” reported, it is very easy for someone who would have never committed a crime, to have their rights suspended and their lives upended:
A COLLEGE STUDENT WHO DID NOT OWN ANY GUNS, HAD NO HISTORY OF VIOLENCE, AND HAD NEVER THREATENED ANYONE BUT WHO NEVERTHELESS WAS AN EARLY TARGET OF FLORIDA’S RED FLAG LAW BECAUSE HE SAID SOME STUPID THINGS ABOUT MASS SHOOTINGS ON REDDIT. ANOTHER CLIENT WAS SLAPPED WITH A GUN CONFISCATION ORDER BECAUSE HE CRITICIZED TEENAGED GUN CONTROL ACTIVISTS ONLINE AND POSTED A PHOTO OF AN AR-15 RIFLE HE HAD BUILT
– Reason.com
We have attached their full article below:
Back to our story:
Anyone who understands the US Constitution, understands that we have certain unalienable rights; and not just the right to free speech, religion, or the right to keep and bear arms.
In fact, there’s a whole section in there on personal, God given rights, that the government cannot take from you; that is, they cannot take them from you without a little thing called DUE PROCESS…and there’s the rub.
You have the right to due process that protects you from being falsely imprisoned or before any of your rights are suspended. You have the right to defend yourself in a fair and speedy trial, judged by a jury of your peers.
You have the right to an adequate defence, and the right to a competent attorney for that defense. You have a right to see all the evidence against you so that you can dispute it. And you have the right to confront your accuser. You have the right of the presumption of innocence until you are proven guilty of a crime.
These are just a few of the important and essential rights and protections that ensure your liberty, that are afforded you by our Constitution.
These Red Flag Laws seem to throw all of that out the window, and they can suspend your rights without your rightful due process.
Sure, you can have a chance to fix things and have your rights reinstated in a court of law, but only after your rights have already been suspended and violated. Is there any other example that you can think of, where any of our other civil rights can be taken away without due process?
What about Free speech? The Right to Privacy? I can’t think of one, however, when you allow the Government to start taking away any particular rights, and make you fight to get them back, they can then, take any of your rights without due process and make it as hard as they want to, to get them back.
Another right that gets stomped on by these laws is the protection we get against unreasonable search and seizure.
There must be actual evidence of a crime and enough probable cause that you have committed that crime for a judge to sign a search warrant. The application process is long and entailed. And they have to list everything they expect to find and roughly where they expect to find it. Rightfully, it is very hard for the police to actually get a search warrant.
But not with these Red Flag Laws. A neighbor, ex friend, estranged family, basically anyone, can attest that you own a gun, and that they have heard you threaten suicide or say that you have mentioned shooting someone; and…boom…they come and search your house.
They confiscate any firearms and ammunition they find, even antiques and collectables. You can even be forcibly detained, put on an involuntary psychiatric hold, or arrested…all without due process.
These are the very circumstances that the founders feared in our government. This is the very reason they put due process into the constitution.
Since 9/11 under the guise of security, the Government has moved closer and closer to crossing that line between safety and liberty. Beginning with the patriot act, the Government began to be able to detain, indefinitely, people who they called “enemy combatants” without any due process. They insisted that they would never use it against American citizens, but there have been many accusations of abuse of that law.
With the patriot act, came the No Fly Lists. Secret lists, that your name could be placed on, without your knowledge or without any due process, that would keep you from flying on any public airline.
The Government is not required to tell you why or how your name was added to the list or why your ability to freely travel had been suspended. Your rights and liberties are simply taken from you without your constitutionally protected right to due process.
You can get your rights back, and finaly get your due process after this happens to you, but not without months or years of fighting through the courts and Government bureaucracy; sometimes costing hundreds of thousands of dollars in attorneys fees.
This actually happened to a Fox News Contributor, Stephen Hayes. He had done nothing wrong, but ended up on the list anyway. It took a ton of time and money to clear his name. He was not afforded the presumption of innocence or any other constitutional rights he had as a united states citizen.
And then came the infamous NSA. The former head of the CIA John Brennan, attested under oath in front of Congress, that the Government was not spying on its own citizens. We found out shortly after, though the leaked Snowden Files, that yes in deed they were spying in us.
Not only were they collecting the data of foreigners, but US citizens as well. We found out that they were recording your private cell phone calls, text messages, video calls, and emails, listening in on smart devices like TV and google and Amazon home virtual assistants, that they had the capability to turn on your lap top and cell phone cameras and mics at will…
After all the outrage, has anyone heard them say they would stop? No, that’s because it is still happening every day and we have accepted it as normal Government behavior in order to keep us safe. But it’s not… it is a violation of our privacy, and the constitution.
Every day, we give up more and more of our rights and freedoms, to an ever more powerful government, who keeps convincing us that it’s in our best interest and for our own good.
We have given up our liberty and justice, for Government control and a false sense of safety. It will not stop if we continue to allow it, and we may never get our freedom back.
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