Opinion
Letter to the AmmoLand Editor
USA – -(AmmoLand.com)- There has been a lot of talk recently about “Red Flag laws.” They are being touted as a partial solution to the “mass shootings” that have some people in an uproar lately.
Here is a definition of Red Flag laws: “In the United States, a red flag law is a gun violence prevention law that permits the police or family members to petition a state court to order the temporary removal of firearms from a person who may present a danger to others or themselves.” From Wikipedia.
Now that we know what a Red Flag law is, let’s see how effective they would be.
So you have an individual who has made statements which suggest or states that they might harm themselves or others. Someone (differs according to jurisdiction) goes to a judge and gets a warrant to remove the guns, and perhaps other potential weapons, from the person’s residence. The Police go and get all listed items from the residence. The person is NOT taken into custody.
That is how it is supposed to work. The trouble is how do they know they got all the guns from the residence? What about other guns that the person may have hidden there? What about firearms they may have in a storage unit? Or perhaps weapons they may have at their hunting cabin? And then there is the possibility that they may just borrow a gun from someone that doesn’t know about the Red Flag order.
In my state, there is no “list” compiled by the Government as to the firearms you have. And even if there were, a person could break the law and not report a firearm or more than one. The bottom line there is no way to guarantee that that person could not get a firearm.
Well, there is a way, and that would be to take that person into custody. There are a few people who would have a problem with that solution from a legal standpoint. And they would probably have a case because the person in question has not broken the law allowing incarceration.
The bottom line is that Red Flag laws are not a solution or even part of a solution to the problem of “mass shootings.”
~ Roy Mercer