A Plea For Reason and the Fallacy of Red Flag Laws

         

Ever since President Trump signaled that he supported taking guns from people deemed to be a threat to themselves or others before being afforded due process rights, the push to pass so called “red flag laws” has driven on full speed ahead. After the most recent shooting in Texas, President Trump once again remarked about his administration’s commitment to keeping weapons out of the hands of people who can be considered a threat to society. What does this mean? Will he sign national legislation supporting stricter back ground checks? Will he support a national red flag law which would enable the authorities to seize weapons from people they deem to be dangerous? Hopefully not, because these laws do not work to prevent murder. They do however, put on us on a dangerous path to totalitarianism where any idea expressed that goes against the state can be deemed a threat. The police would have the power to seize firearms from people who have committed no crime while those willing to commit murder do so slowed down by no law. Florida’s red flag laws provide us with a perfect example.

The Sun Sentinel ran a story on March 16, describing the first incident in which Florida’s new red flag laws were used. A man’s firearms were confiscated, and he was involuntarily placed in a psychiatric facility because he was tampering with the electrical breakers in his condominium. He reportedly told police he was being targeted by an individual in his building who was a shapeshifter as well. So, he was a conspiracy theorist exhibiting some signs of paranoia, this doesn’t mean he is a threat to anyone. Even in the event he is proven to be mentally unstable the fact remains that this red flag seizure of his firearms did absolutely nothing to prevent murderers from committing murder. The law didn’t prevent the May 2^nd shooting in Orange County where a man was shot twice in a drive by incident, nor did it stop the murder of one Shanti Cooper-Troones who was found dead in her home on the first of May. On April 18, 2018 a man named Albert Hanks was shot when the perpetrator discovered there was no money in his bank account after stealing his ATM card. One of the individuals involved in this crime was under the age of twenty-one. Florida also passed a law prohibiting anyone under twenty-one years of age from possessing firearms. Perhaps they should pass a law prohibiting people under twenty-one from stealing people’s ATM cards. This will surely prevent theft just as the red flag laws will prevent murder.

On May 16, 2018, Miami-Dade Police made a firearm and ammunition seizure from a man who allegedly was on their radar for two years. Though, no explanation is given as to why he was on their radar, aside from the vague comment that he had made threats. What kind of threats did he make? According to Todd Tongen, writing for Local Ten News, the man willingly surrendered all of his firearms without a struggle to police when asked, so what kind of threat could he have possibly posed? Don’t worry, they prevented him from doing something they suspected he may have done even if they are not sure what it may have been. If the guy is that much of a threat what will stop him from buying a gun illegally? Oh yes, it’s against the law to buy a gun illegally, nothing to worry about then. On May 20, 2018, Marquette Arnaud Clark was found shot to death and he had been robbed of his shoes and cell phone. On May 19, 2018, Darious Marquious Anderson was shot to death in an apparent gang shoot out where several homes were also struck by gun fire. These shootings took place after the May 16^th red flag seizure from a man who willingly surrendered his firearms to police. Looks like they are targeting the easy people first, these shooters are still on the loose. Finally, just today there was a shooter who barricaded himself in a room and had a shoot-out with police before killing himself. Those red flag laws did nothing to prevent him from committing homicide days earlier. There is literally no way of knowing if the twenty-two incidents in which authorities seized lawfully owned firearms from people on mere suspicion prevented any crimes. But, at least they tried right? Perhaps the community expressing anger that their neighbor is building massive sheds in his own yard should be red flagged because they are described as being “up in arms” over it.

We are on very dangerous ground here. The left is working incessantly to turn public opinion against lawful gun owners who do nothing wrong. If they are not careful, the very laws they seek to use against us will be used against them as well when they are no longer ideologically aligned with the state. Mental Health has long been a tool of communist regimes to silence dissent and label opposition to communist ideals as insanity. We have already seen government reports labeling gun owners as potential threats to society simply for expressing concerns on infringements against the second amendment. If we are not careful, or if we do not employ reason to this argument we will find ourselves in a nation where disagreeing with the “reasonableness” of common sense gun laws is seen as a reason to be red flagged.

Man must be consistently demonstrated to be a mechanism without individuality, and it must be educated into a populace under attack that Man's individualistic reactions are the product of mental derangement. The populace must be brought into the belief that every individual within it who rebels in any way, shape, or form against efforts and activities to enslave the whole, must be considered to be a deranged person whose eccentricities are neurotic or insane, and who must have at once the treatment of a Psychopolitician. (Lavetia Beria)