Yeah, it will take a bit of time to do it, but leftists play the long game.

I don’t know why I am so surprised that so many conservatives seem so naive about this. Red flag laws are cracking the lid on Pandora’s box on taking away your 2A rights and the uglies are sliding out as we speak. I would like to see how well this post has aged in 20 years’ time. I would hate to be right, but I’m pretty sure I will be.

Red Flag laws allow anyone, for any reason, to report that another individual shouldn’t have access to guns due to … whatever reason. As I understand it, if the report’s allegations are found to be sufficient, law enforcement will remove guns from the individual reported (without a prior hearing or due process) and then the individual may pursue an opportunity to refute the report and obtain the return of the firearms.

How abused do I think Red Flag laws will be? Massively. Here’s a list of why.

(1) Cowardly Judges: Judges will not be the protector of 2nd amendment rights. What judge will dare not sign any red flag request? In my experience, most judges are the biggest cowards … they look for a way out of a decision or the path of least resistance that won’t result in an appeal or reflect badly on them. No judge will risk being the authority who did not sign the order and then the subject of the report goes and shoots up a school. In my experience, judges mostly care about their pension and their elevated position in the community.

(2) Dysfunctional Courts: Any deadline for an actual “quick” hearing will be mostly ignored. I work with seniors in the guardianship setting where family members file for guardianship to take away the rights of a senior to make their own decisions. In one state I practice in, the Court can grant an emergency guardianship without an initial hearing if there is an imminent danger allegation, but the Court must hold a hearing within three days in order to continue the guardianship. The three-day requirement is routinely ignored. I had one senior under an “emergency” guardianship for over eight months before I could get it dismissed. There had been no medical evidence filed, no attorney representation for the senior at the onset, and no hearing. (The kids pursuing the g-ship didn’t like how their perfectly competent mother was spending “their inheritance.”) I even filed in my state Court of Appeals for relief … the appellate court agreed with me but remanded the case back to the trial court to “fix” it rather than grant my request for emergency relief to immediately release mom from the guardianship. (This is just the political class protecting each other.)

Even well-intentioned courts don’t work on a proper timeline. Citizens who do not have regular contact with the courts have no idea how dysfunctional they are. Heck, defendants are guaranteed the right to a speedy trial…does that happen? And the cost of engaging the system to hire an attorney, etc .,is also a limiting factor for most. Court relief will not happen in most cases. Also, even if you have the hearing, the coward judge could still find that you shouldn’t have your guns and what is the downside for him/her to do so? Almost none. Is the individual going to be able to afford an attorney to take the case up on appeal? Will the individual even be able to find an attorney to appeal? Appeals are very, very expensive and judges know this. (I did all the work in the above g-ship pro bono because I was so enraged, but it cost me thousands of dollars out of pocket for experts, medical assessments, discovery costs, etc) A judge can issue a bad decision, even an illegal one, but it stands unless overturned on appeal.

(3) Personal Payback: People will use Red Flag laws for their own nefarious purposes. Are you an adult child mad at your dad because he won’t give you rent money? Are you an estranged wife looking for a way to further “get one over” on your cheating husband? Are you in a dispute over the tree limbs on the fence line with your neighbor? Did your boss, an avid hunter, just fire you? A freedom-loving veteran who displays gun enthusiast stickers on your truck and drove too fast through the neighborhood? People will lie and they will lie big: Let me draw a parallel for you to the allegations of child abuse in divorce proceedings. In my practice as a children’s ad litem, I saw parents make the most heinous allegations of child abuse against the other for strategic advantage in custody and property division decisions. Remember, presumably, you can be held in contempt for filing a false report or lying to the court. Did that matter? Not in the least. There are ZERO penalties for lying. Example: Mom claims her estranged husband sodomized their five-year-old son with a long-neck beer bottle, put the child through a Sexual Assualt exam (which found nothing), got an emergency order to cut off all contact with dad, and then delayed the final hearing for years while the son went to “counseling” that did nothing but affirm the abuse and his alienation from his dad. At 11 years old, the son finally got in front of a judge and said that it was all a lie and that he didn’t understand what his mom was asking him to do at the time and he recanted. Dad finally got to see his son again. (Mind you, this was the same judge that bought the story in the first place and prohibited contact for years! See #1 above.) Also, dad worked in law enforcement — perfect Red Flag target had that been available. And that is just one of the scores of examples I could share. People will lie, lie, lie!

(4) Institutional Abuse: Institutions will use Red Flag laws for their own nefarious purposes. Speak out at a school board meeting? The anti-woke employee at the HR training? Donated money to the “wrong” candidate or party? Report.

(5) Mission Creep: The Red Flag law categories will be expanded. The Feds already tried to remove gun rights from seniors who have a representative payee for their social security. (It didn’t pass.) If the VA finds a veteran incapacitated for purposes of the Aid and Attendance program payments, the veteran’s gun rights are presently removed (and there is no hearing for that either — it is based on whether the senior can handle their finances).

In the future, I can see Red Flags laws being tied to medical diagnostic codes and requiring medical providers to report. Diagnosed with Alzheimer’s? Report. Prescribed an anti-depressant? Report. Or, with Electronic Medical Records, implementing an automatic reporting feature if certain diagnostic codes are toggled.

Also, every government apparatus will grow to justify its existence. Low on red flag reports this month? Then beat the bushes to get more red flag reports in to justify the government clerks assigned to process these reports. I can see where laws will require notices of red flag procedures to be given to family court litigants and crime victims. The number of complaints goes up, the budget goes up. More and more people flagged. More and more people are disarmed. Red Flag category creep will happen. Even if you are a perfect, good citizen, you will eventually get tripped up on something. Disarmed.

Ammo Girl at Powerline said all this, but more entertainingly than I did.

Are republicans stupid? Naive? Evil? Or just uni-party and we plebs are worthless and should be governed by our betters? A disarmed society is more easily controlled and governed by unpopular edicts.

Let’s check back in the years to come to see if I am right.