Red Flag Laws, or Extreme Risk Protective Orders, allow for the confiscation of firearms legally possessed by individuals who are accused of being imminent dangers to themselves or others. They were all intentioned laws and Unconstitutional. Red Flag Laws are advertised as legislative solutions to gun violence, that infringe upon Americans’ inalienable 2nd Amendment Rights.
So how do Red Flag Laws work? In communities where they are implemented, Red Flag Laws allow Police, family, and others the right to petition a court to confiscate the firearms of a third party if they are portrayed as an imminent danger.
But aside from being unconstitutional, Red Flag Laws create dangerous scenarios for both the individuals subject to them and the law enforcement officers attempting to enforce them. For example, in just the first year of Maryland enforcing its Red Flag Laws, one man was killed by police after his weapon discharged when resisting the order.
Allowing third parties to request the confiscation of law-abiding citizens’ firearms lead to violations of the Constitution and the individual liberties of American citizens. They can also lead to frivolous and vindictive attempts to target police, as evidenced in this Colorado case.
Statistics show that thousands of Red Flag petitions have been filed in the 18 states and Washington, D.C., since these laws were first enacted in 1999, with the majority coming in recent years following the Parkland Shooting in Florida.
It is not clear however, how much these unconstitutional laws have decreased violent gun crime beyond other Federal regulations already on the books.
In response to these new infringements on law abiding gun owner’s rights, cities across the country have begun declaring themselves 2nd Amendment Sanctuaries.
2nd Amendment Sanctuaries are cities & jurisdictions which refuse to comply with Red Flag Laws and other unconstitutional gun control measures.
There are over 1200 2nd Amendment Sanctuaries across 37 states in America. The citizens of Virginia alone have established 2nd Amendment Sanctuaries in 86 of the state’s 95 counties.
A map of America’s 2nd Amendment sanctuaries can be found here.
Alaska, Idaho, Kansas, and Wyoming have all passed state legislation protecting the 2nd Amendment and resisting unconstitutional gun control laws.
In a first of its kind initiative in 2020, Legislators in Mississippi introduced House Bill 753 which sought to establish an interstate compact amongst 9 Southern states to protect citizens’ 2nd Amendment rights.
This proposed bill illustrates how regions can band together to create 2nd Amendment zones where law abiding citizens would be free of unconstitutional gun control efforts.
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