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Opinion

Red Flag: An Insidious Way Of Allowing Unconstitutional Gun Control … Without Due Process

When I went to purchase a little .22 pistol in California a few years ago, I had to pass a written exam, fill out an application and wait two weeks to take possession. The background check was extensive.

Then, in Oregon, in order to get a concealed carry permit, I had to attend a training/safety course, pass the test, make application, wait for the background check, and pay a fee to get the permit from the sheriff’s office, a permit that must be renewed periodically.

If the day comes the government decides to issue an ’emergency’ order to confiscate all guns owned privately, what list do you think they’ll use to start with?

The government already demands a free citizen obtain permission to buy a gun, and one must have permission to carry it, and if you use it in self-defense you will be arrested and possibly charged with a crime.

We put more pressure and apply more scrutiny to law-abiding citizens than we do criminals.

Criminals don’t worry about background checks or permits. They just go to the black market and go out and commit felonies. I wonder when we will wake up? Perhaps never.

Now, in California and Oregon, and soon in other Northwest states, we have ‘red flag’ laws allowing a judge to make an independent ruling, without any review, to confiscate firearms if someone is determined a threat. The definition of ‘threat’ includes supposed mental illness of any kind, or other suspicious behavior, based merely on an accusation by a private party.

The accused gets no notification, and has no opportunity to hear the charges or respond. If the judge agrees with the accuser, the police can be ordered to confiscate guns belonging to the accused, the presumption of guilt. It takes at least a year for the accused to exonerate himself. It is a totally unconstitutional set up that violates multiple principles of the rule of law, but no matter, the government has determined we have an emergency situation with school shootings etc., so drastic measures are required, according to the enemies of the 2nd Amendment.

We are losing our freedoms and our rights and our ability to defend ourselves from government and criminal encroachment, but hardly a word of protest is heard. And the most insane aspect of all this: gun control does not work! But that is not the point. The Left has always used fear to leverage an agenda, and that agenda is total control. Step one in that process: disarm patriots, the ones most likely to resist tyranny. The thug government is Venezuela is shooting people. Not long ago, gun control and complete confiscation was accomplished. What chance have average Venezuelans today?

What chance have we unless we stop the thugs in our own country?

Allan Erickson

Allan Erickson---Christian, husband, father, journalist, businessman, screenwriter, and author of The Cross & the Constitution in the Age of Incoherence, Tate Publishing, 2012.