Democrats, nationwide and in Minnesota, are fixated on “Red Flag Laws”. In the wake of Uvalde, it’s become the flavor the the month for the grabbers, yet again – part of the endless cycle that the gun control movement has become.
Now, it’s hypothetically possible to create a Red Flag Law that could work. But it won’t, and can’t, be the Red Flag bill that the DFL keeps dragging out in the Minnesota legislature, which:
- Lets pretty much anyone turn in anybody, for reasons legitimate or malicious. Various Twin Cities anti-gun groups have already promised to use the measure to “SWAT” Minnesota Second Amendment activists if it passes, which they can certainly do, since nothing about the bill prevents it.
- Leads to the cops driving away with someone’s guns – but leaving them in a home full of knives, rope and propane.
- Perverts dues process, with a low standard of evidence to take the guns, and a much higher one to get them back.
All that is bad enough.
But once you get to that, you come to the inevitable realization that if our mental health system can’t effectively intervene in a tragedy like this horrific s**t-show earlier this month, what do you think they can do about cases that present much more subtly, or with much more backstory ?
Red flag laws carry the risk of hysteria or even malice. Think messy divorce (most), where she flies off the handle and waves the red flag or uses it as a club to get even.
These things happen. We all know that.
I can even understand the impulse to sweep the problem under the rug, because, well, “we don’t want people to be hesitant to report.”
But the problem isn’t necessarily with those who might use the law, it is the hysteria and malice of those who promote and write the laws.
And in a world where progressives sympathize with violent criminals rather than their victims that is chilling.
California has a red flag law. Its backers claim that it has saved countless lives (really! Countless!). In practice, most Cali red flag seizures have a police officer as the complainant. Most of the guns seized are never returned because the person served with the order does not contest it by the deadline.
Reasons given for this failure to contest vary. In most cases it seems that person whose guns are seized has so many other difficulties that the expense and trouble of contesting the order makes it a low priority.
The gun crime/suicide stats from Cali do not show a significant change before & after the red flag law passed in 2018.
I would like anyone to point out to me how red flag law would have prevented inaction by the pigs in Uvalde (not all cops are pigs, but the ones with blood on their hands in Uvalde are real porkers) that resulted in innocents being killed – not that pigs are required by law to protect citizens paying for their donut breaks.