No White Flag on Red Flag Laws
Kurt Schlichter
Posted: Jun 16, 2022 12:01 AM
Red flag laws? No.
I get that people don’t like the idea of scumbags murdering kids. I don’t either, which is why I want criminals prosecuted and cops in schools. And I understand the appeal of a process to take away the guns from people we would all agree are bad but who have not yet actually gone and become felons or certifiable crazies. I have friends who argue for these laws, confident that our rights will be protected by due process. But I do not share their faith; if the last few years has taught us anything it is not to put our trust in institutions to do their constitutional duty when it conflicts with their political preferences. But even if a fair process could be established, the idea of red flag laws is entirely based upon a flawed premise. The premise is that you can just take a right away because you think it’s a good idea. It’s hard to see the due process when someone being processed has done nothing wrong. That’s key – if they have done something wrong, there are already constitutionally sound ways to restrain them.
You don’t get to take people rights without convicting them of a crime, or showing they are nuts and need to be in the booby-hatch. There’s no special exception to the Constitution because ten invertebrate Republican senators want to “do something.” We already have well-established and constitutional ways of “doing something.” If someone is a convicted felon, he’s banned from having a gun. If someone is making threats, get a restraining order or, better yet, arrest him. If someone is crazy, then channel that old Van Halen album and 5150 him. But the Founders would look upon you if you told them “Hey, we think it’s cool to strip people of their sacred rights because someone complains about them and a judge is too scared to actually demand real evidence and risk letting him keep his rights,” and they would say, “Taketh ye head from inside your rear endeth, for thou art a fool.”
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https://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2022/06/16/no-white-flag-on-red-flag-laws-n2608724
