{"id":38922,"date":"2022-08-01T16:38:50","date_gmt":"2022-08-01T16:38:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/?p=38922"},"modified":"2022-08-19T15:35:29","modified_gmt":"2022-08-19T15:35:29","slug":"red-flag-gun-laws","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/red-flag-gun-laws\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Flag Gun Laws"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Red flag gun laws<\/a>\u00a0(which authorize government officials to seize guns from individuals viewed as a danger to themselves or others) are gaining traction as a legislative means by which to allow police to remove guns from people suspected of being threats, it wouldn\u2019t take much for police to be given the green light to enter a home without a warrant in order to\u00a0seize lawfully-possessed firearms<\/a>\u00a0based on concerns that the guns might pose a danger.<\/p>\n

\"\"Frankly, a person wouldn\u2019t even need to own a gun to be subjected to such a home invasion.<\/p>\n

SWAT teams have crashed through doors on lesser pretexts\u00a0based on false information, mistaken identities and wrong addresses<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Nineteen states<\/a>\u00a0and the District of Columbia have adopted laws allowing the police to remove guns from people suspected of being threats. If Congress succeeds in passing the Federal Extreme Risk Protection Order, which would\u00a0nationalize red flag laws<\/a>, that number will grow.<\/p>\n

As\u00a0The Washington Post<\/em>\u00a0reports, these red flag gun laws \u201callow a family member, roommate, beau, law enforcement officer or any type of medical professional to file a petition [with a court] asking that a person\u2019s home be temporarily cleared of firearms.\u00a0It doesn\u2019t require a mental-health diagnosis or an arrest.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n

In the wake of yet another round of mass shootings, these gun confiscation laws\u2014extreme risk protection order<\/a>\u00a0(ERPO) laws\u2014may appease the fears of those who believe that fewer guns in the hands of the general populace will make our society safer.<\/p>\n

Of course, it doesn\u2019t always work that way.<\/p>\n

Anything\u2014knives, vehicles, planes,<\/a>\u00a0pressure cookers\u2014can become a weapon when wielded with deadly intentions.<\/p>\n

With these red flag gun laws, the stated intention is to disarm individuals who are\u00a0potential<\/em>\u00a0threats\u2026 to \u201cstop dangerous people before they act<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"While in theory it appears perfectly reasonable to want to disarm individuals who are clearly suicidal and\/or pose an \u201cimmediate danger<\/a>\u201d to themselves or others, where the problem arises is when you put the power to determine who is a\u00a0potential<\/em>\u00a0danger in the hands of government agencies, the courts and the police.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve been down this road before.<\/p>\n

Remember, this is the same government that uses the words \u201canti-government,\u201d \u201cextremist\u201d and \u201cterrorist\u201d\u00a0interchangeably<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This is the same government whose agents are spinning a sticky spider-web of\u00a0threat assessments<\/a>, behavioral sensing warnings, flagged \u201cwords,\u201d and \u201csuspicious\u201d activity reports using automated eyes and ears, social media,\u00a0behavior sensing software<\/a>, and citizen spies to identify\u00a0potential<\/em>\u00a0threats.<\/p>\n

This is the same government that has a growing list\u2014shared with fusion centers and law enforcement agencies\u2014of ideologies, behaviors, affiliations and other characteristics that could flag someone as suspicious and result in their being labeled\u00a0potential<\/em>\u00a0enemies of the state.<\/p>\n

For instance, if you believe in and exercise your rights under the Constitution (namely, your right to speak freely, worship freely, associate with like-minded individuals who share your political views, criticize the government, own a weapon, demand a warrant before being questioned or searched, or any other activity viewed as potentially anti-government, racist, bigoted, anarchic or sovereign), you could be\u00a0at the top of the government\u2019s terrorism watch list<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Moreover, as a\u00a0New York Times<\/em>\u00a0editorial warns, you may be an anti-government extremist (a.k.a.\u00a0domestic terrorist<\/a>) in the eyes of the police if you are afraid that the\u00a0government is plotting to confiscate your firearms<\/a>, if you believe the\u00a0economy is about to collapse<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0government will soon declare martial law<\/a>, or if you display an unusual number of\u00a0political and\/or ideological bumper stickers<\/a>\u00a0on your car.<\/p>\n

Let that sink in a moment.<\/p>\n

Now consider the ramifications of giving police that kind of authority: to preemptively raid homes in order to neutralize a potential threat.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a powder keg waiting for a lit match.<\/p>\n

Under these red flag laws, what happened to Duncan Lemp\u2014who was gunned down in his bedroom during an early morning, no-knock SWAT team raid on his family\u2019s home\u2014could very well happen to more people.<\/p>\n

At 4:30 a.m. on March 12, 2020, in the midst of a COVID-19 pandemic that had most of the country under a partial lockdown and sheltering at home, a masked SWAT team\u2014deployed to execute a \u201chigh risk\u201d search warrant for unauthorized firearms\u2014stormed the suburban house where 21-year-old Duncan, a software engineer and Second Amendment advocate, lived with his parents and 19-year-old brother.<\/p>\n

The entire household, including Lemp and his girlfriend, was reportedly asleep when the\u00a0SWAT team directed flash bang grenades and gunfire through Lemp\u2019s bedroom window<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lemp was\u00a0killed<\/a>\u00a0and his girlfriend injured.<\/p>\n

No one in the house that morning, including Lemp, had a criminal record.<\/p>\n

No one in the house that morning, including Lemp, was considered an \u201cimminent threat\u201d to law enforcement or the public, at least not according to the search warrant.<\/p>\n

So what was so urgent that militarized police felt compelled to employ battlefield tactics in the pre-dawn hours of a day when most people are asleep in bed, not to mention stuck at home as part of a nationwide lockdown?<\/p>\n

According to police, they were tipped off that Lemp was in possession of \u201cfirearms.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thus, rather than approaching the house by the front door at a reasonable hour in order to investigate this complaint\u2014which is what the Fourth Amendment requires\u2014police instead strapped on their guns, loaded up their flash bang grenades and carried out a no-knock raid on the household.<\/p>\n

According to the\u00a0county report<\/a>, the no-knock raid was justified \u201cdue to Lemp being \u2018anti-government,\u2019 \u2018anti-police,\u2019 currently in possession of body armor, and an active member of the Three Percenters,\u201d a far-right paramilitary group that discussed government resistance.<\/p>\n

This is what happens when you adopt\u00a0red flag gun law<\/a>s, painting anyone who might be in possession of a gun\u2014legal or otherwise\u2014as a threat that must be neutralized.<\/p>\n

Therein lies the danger of these red flag laws, specifically, and pre-crime laws such as these generally where\u00a0the burden of proof is reversed<\/a>\u00a0and you are guilty before you are given any chance to prove you are innocent.<\/p>\n

Red flag gun laws merely push us that much closer towards a suspect society where everyone is potentially guilty of some crime or another and must be preemptively rendered harmless.<\/p>\n

Where many Americans go wrong is in naively assuming that you have to be doing something illegal or harmful in order to be flagged and targeted for some form of intervention or detention.<\/p>\n

In fact, all you need to do these days to end up on a government watch list or be subjected to heightened scrutiny is\u00a0use certain trigger words<\/a>\u00a0(like cloud, pork and pirates), surf the internet, communicate using a cell phone,\u00a0limp or stutter<\/a>,\u00a0drive a car<\/a>, stay at a hotel, attend a political rally,\u00a0express yourself on social media<\/a>,\u00a0appear mentally ill<\/a>, serve in the\u00a0military<\/a>,\u00a0disagree with a law enforcement official<\/a>,\u00a0call in sick to work<\/a>, purchase materials at a hardware store, take flying or boating lessons,\u00a0appear suspicious<\/a>, appear confused or nervous, fidget or whistle or smell bad, be seen in public waving a toy gun or anything remotely resembling a gun (such as a water nozzle or a remote control or a walking cane),\u00a0stare at a police officer<\/a>, question government authority,\u00a0appear to be pro-gun or pro-freedom<\/a>, or generally live in the United States.<\/p>\n

Be warned: once you get on such a government watch list\u2014whether it\u2019s a terrorist watch list, a mental health watch list, a dissident watch list, or a red flag gun watch list\u2014there\u2019s no clear-cut way to get off, whether or not you should actually be on there.<\/p>\n

You\u00a0will<\/em>\u00a0be flagged as a potential threat and dealt with accordingly.<\/p>\n

You\u00a0will<\/em>\u00a0be tracked by the government\u2019s pre-crime, surveillance network wherever you go.<\/p>\n

Hopefully you\u2019re starting to understand how easy we\u2019ve made it for the government to identify, label, target, defuse and detain anyone it views as a\u00a0potential<\/em>\u00a0threat for a variety of reasons that run the gamut from mental illness to having a military background to challenging its authority to just being on the government\u2019s list of\u00a0persona non grata<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The government has been building its pre-crime, surveillance network in concert with\u00a0fusion centers<\/a>\u00a0(of which there are 78 nationwide, with partners in the private sector and globally), data collection agencies, behavioral scientists, corporations, social media, and community organizers and by relying on cutting-edge technology for surveillance, facial recognition,\u00a0predictive policing<\/a>, biometrics, and behavioral\u00a0epigenetics<\/a>\u00a0(in which life experiences alter one\u2019s genetic makeup).<\/p>\n

Combine red flag laws with the government\u2019s surveillance networks and its plan to establish an agency that will take the lead in\u00a0identifying and targeting \u201csigns\u201d of mental illness or violent inclinations among the populace<\/a>\u00a0by using artificial intelligence to collect data from Apple Watches, Fitbits, Amazon Echo and Google Home, and you\u2019ll understand why some might view gun control legislation with trepidation.<\/p>\n

No matter how well-meaning the politicians make these encroachments on our rights appear, in the right (or wrong) hands, benevolent plans can easily be put to malevolent purposes.<\/p>\n

As I make clear in my book\u00a0Battlefield America: The War on the American People<\/em><\/a>\u00a0and in its fictional counterpart\u00a0The Erik Blair Diaries<\/em><\/a>, even the most well-intentioned government law or program can be\u2014and has been\u2014perverted, corrupted and used to advance illegitimate purposes once profit and power are added to the equation.<\/p>\n

The war on terror, the war on drugs, the war on illegal immigration, the war on COVID-19: all of these programs started out as legitimate responses to pressing concerns and have since become weapons of compliance and control in the government\u2019s hands.<\/p>\n

No matter how well-intentioned, red flag gun laws will put a target on the back of every American\u00a0whether or not they own a weapon<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Red flag gun laws\u00a0(which authorize government officials to seize guns from individuals viewed as a danger to themselves or others) are gaining traction as a legislative means by which to allow police to remove guns from people suspected of being threats, it wouldn\u2019t take much for police to be given the green light to enter Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41241,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1287,133,39,52,40,5,6,51,1],"tags":[1494,26],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38922"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38922"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38922\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39494,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38922\/revisions\/39494"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}