Tyranny of “Red Flag Laws!”
Recently, a middle-aged gun-owner in MI, with no criminal record of any kind, voluntarily sought professional counseling for himself for some personal mental-health issues (unspecified). He is a long-standing member of a local gun range where I’ve instructed defensive courses.
Shortly thereafter, local police showed-up at his home, unannounced, and proceed to impound all his guns!
Police explained that his guns will be “impounded” for a minimum of one year, and no guarantee is made with regard to their care, nor their condition when they are returned (if they ever are). Officers would not tell him where, nor how, is property would be stored, nor what care it would receive during transport and storage.
So, when he finally gets his guns back, and they are scratched-up, broken, missing, and/or covered with rust, no one will assume any personal responsibility, not the police, not the judge, not the therapist, and there will be no compensation for his loss.
This innocent gun-owner was never informed of this “Red Flag Order” prior to officers showing-up at his house, nor was he ever given an opportunity for any kind of appeal (not even an inquiry), nor was he told how, nor by whom, nor to whom, his counseling-session was reported.
Now that his guns are gone, any appeal to have them returned promptly will cost multiple thousands of dollars in legal fees, and he’ll be unable to subsequently purchase any new gun legally, as NICS will bounce his 4473. And even when his guns are returned, getting his NICS status reinstated (if it ever can be) may take years and more thousands of dollars in legal fees!
Not a shred of “Due Process.” No opportunity to be heard and present his side of the story. Just an order, signed by a judge who has never met him, all based upon mysterious, one-sided, secret, unsworn testimony by people he’ll never have the opportunity to confront nor cross-examine, all with no consequences to them when it is subsequently discovered they were lying.
So, anyone (even people you don’t know and have never met) can say anything they want about you, having never been sworn-in, all without you ever knowing it, and bingo, every gun you own is precipitously taken away to an unknown location, and you may never get them back.
All this in spite of the fact you’ve never been convicted of, nor even charged with, any crime!
So much for the “slight inconvenience” we’ve all been falsely told about “Red Flag Laws!”
The “unintended consequences” of these ill-conceived laws are obvious:
People in desperate need of mental-health advise, even something as simple and common as marriage-counseling, will deliberately decide not to seek it, out of fear of losing their guns and thus any ability they have to protect themselves in our dangerous world.
So as anyone one could have predicted, “Red Flag Laws” prevent people from ever seeking medical assistance they need.
It’s a travesty, and I can’t imagine why our Supreme Court has not contemptuously ruled all “Red Flag Laws” unconstitutional!
“Red Flag Laws” are gratuitously hurting a lot of innocent people, as we see.
/John
