Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
A Sad Story of Sensible Gun Legislation
It’s official: House Democrats, acting on a purely partisan basis, are trotting up their poll-tested “best of” legislation to restrict gun ownership. The House Judiciary Committee is holding an “emergency hearing” on Thursday to “mark up” the bills. Any GOP efforts to modify the bills in any way will be rejected. Oldies but goodies, politically speaking.
Are you one of the thousands of teenagers in Pennsylvania who enjoy the opening of hunting season – a school holiday in many parts of the Commonwealth? If you are 19 years old and looking to buy a new .30-06 caliber rifle for that hunting trip – more powerful than the scary-looking AR-15 that is generally unsuitable for large game hunting – the Democrats say no. Even if you pass your background check and just completed basic training for the Pennsylvania Army National Guard. Where you were trained to handle really scary-looking guns. Even grenades.
Joe Biden does not believe in hardening schools. He would rather make millions of law abiding gun owners pay the price.
Good analysis. One thing that I doubt will have much effect is raising the purchase age to 21, unless what they are really saying is raising the ownership age to 21. Even then, who “owns” a firearm in a household? If the Dad buys a rifle, will it be against the law for his 19 year old child to even hold it? Would it be against the law for them to go hunting with their other friends absent their parent? What about to the range? The 2012 bill that Sen Schumer wanted to pass, and had support from Sen Toomey as well had some rather odd provisions about “transfers” of a firearm from one person to another. For example, one version made it a felony to lend your forearm to another person to take to the range and try out, unless you went with them. You had to get a background check to do that. It was unworkable, and that is a big reason why there was outright hostility from most people who care at all about firearms rights.
The 26th Amendment passed based on the argument that if 18-year-olds were mature enough to be drafted into the Vietnam War, they ought to at least be allowed to vote. Seems to me the same reasoning applies to the right to bear arms.
I saw a meme on FB (of course I cannot find it now), but it had an abortion advocate saying “If you don’t like abortion, don’t get one”, then it had the gun rights advocate saying “If you don’t like guns, don’t buy one”. Then on the next line it showed the abortion advocate saying, “but think of all the children that are being killed by guns”, and the guns right person says “You’re a special kind of stupid aren’t you”
Every time there’s a shooting of any kind, Democrats rub their hands together in glee, recognizing an opening to push through the outlawing of any firearm of any kind.
And Republicans don’t have the mivonks to say no. Instead they always seek to compromise. There is no compromising with totalitarians, guys. You point at the constitution and you say “no,” and you ignore the media tools.
The left wants to get rid of guns, unless of course, they’re owned by criminals. The reason is obvious. The left wing of the Democrat party is totalitarian. Totalitarians want monopoly on guns as well as everything else. There is no room for change on gun laws unless we choose to reverse existing restrictions on law abiding gun owners which have been creeping forward for decades.
I do not believe in “sensible gun legislation”. It does not exist. That is just code words for “Making guns harder to get for law abiding citizens”.
Red Flag rules cannot be implemented without being weaponized politically. As they are put into place I guarantee that conservative social media posts will be used to void individual’s rights.
There can be no compromise with Democrats and the left on anything in dealing with guns. They are tyrants who want to disarm us, so they can have their way, just like past tyrants have.
We should steal a page from the Leftist playbook and slap the word “sensible” in front of all our proposals:
See how calm and reassuring that sounds?
We have a winner!
I like “common sense gun protection”.
Red Flag laws could be doable. However, they should restrict transfers (no new guns) as opposed to confiscation, and require a court proceeding. Political or religious beliefs must be explicitly excluded from grounds to initiate a red flag proceeding. Performing an illegitimate red flag would be a civil rights violation and make those responsible liable in civil and criminal court.
All nice in theory, but everyone dealing with these “sensible” laws is a flawed human being.
One of the maxims I’ve had for many years is “no great hand comes down from the sky to force people to do the right thing.” That includes judges, lawyers, cops, you name it. You get “red flag” laws and they will be abused. Count on it. The Left are salivating that you would go along with it.
I simply do not trust the execution to be fair. And as a therapist I absolutely refuse to be dragged into some mandated reporting system. Red flag laws will be used to force me to violate confidentiality.
LOL! So naive! Our government violates our civil rights on a daily basis, and nobody is ever held responsible. You think it’ll be different with Red Flag laws?
Or use “Common Sense”
Georgia passed common sense election reforms
While I agree with the critics, that red flag laws will be abused, I do wonder if that means that they must not be tried. Do we allow the perfect to be the enemy of the good? I actually like the civil rights violation idea, much like leaking health data (in violation of HIPAA) is a violation of the leaked persons civil rights and the leaker is responsible for damages. To make that work, we might need to enact controls that make the initiator of the request, as well as the court that allows it, and the enforcement all responsible for protecting the firearm owners civil rights. Of course, in perfect David French style, this will mean more work for lawyers, and an aggrieved party would need to pay lawyers to sue for damages. Ugh. On second though, how about we make it a capital offense to bring one of these illegitimately?
Chesterton’s Fence, in a way. With the 2nd Amendment being the fence in question.
But with an absolute “no, they may not tear down this fence, because they don’t have a clue why it’s there.”
Agree. Anyone believing with cause that a family member or friend may harm themselves (suicide is the leading cause of deaths from gun use) or others should first seek police action. Police will decide whether to seek a court order. The accused is notified, and gets his or her time in court, subject to appeal. Such “red flag” orders should be time-limited. Even then, I fear a slippery slope like we are now seeing in Canada, which is looking to expand its existing and rather broad red flag laws.
Here’s a nice little history lesson.
This has all happened before. It will all happen again.
The answer to any Red Flag laws or “Common sense gun control” is . . .
Do we allow the bad to be the enemy of the good? I say yes.
Such laws, once passed, and no matter how badly they failed or were even counter-productive, would never be repealed. The Left would see to that.
No compromise with people who are lying to our faces.
Never, never never.
There can never be any compromise on Democrats on guns. None. Not of free speech either. There is no compromise that can be made with them on any subject at all, because they will lie.
1987 Immigration. The Same people control the Democrats today that were in on that.
They will always betray us. Always.
Again, they will make people like me a “Mandated Reporter” and then I will be held liable for not saying something.
No. Red Flag laws will not work.