****URGENT LEGISLATIVE UPDATE*****
The right of due process, enshrined in the Constitution and dating back to the Magna Carta in 1215, is the hallmark of Western Civilization.
The right of the people not to be deprived of their liberty or property without a trial of their peers was one of the leading causes of the American Revolution, but as I write this a bi-partisan team of United States Senators is working overtime to violate this bedrock of our Republic.
As a side note, a wise friend once told me that bi-partisan is taking one political party’s bad idea and the other party making it worse.
Violating their oaths of office, Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Susan Collins (R-ME) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) are teaming with anti-gun and anti-liberty zealots such as Democrat Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) to pass unconstitutional ‘Red Flag of Tyranny’ firearm confiscation legislation.
Under current state “Red Flag” laws, legal firearms can be seized from law-abiding gun owners based on an unsubstantiated accusation from an anti-gun family member, ex-partner, or neighbor.
With no due process or presumption of innocence, they can ask the government to authorize seizure and send a SWAT team to show up at your door at 5 in the morning with ex parte orders to barge in and take your guns.
No notification. No due process.
And these orders have been issued over 1800 times already in many states.
This is the exact opposite of what liberty, freedom and the rule of law looks like. In fact, while claiming to attempt to reduce violence, these laws have already caused the death of one Maryland resident, who woke up with armed men beating his door in and responded with his legally owned firearm.
The police shot him to death.
This is nothing less than murder and pure tyranny. The 5th Amendment to the United States Constitution states that ‘no individual shall be deprived of life, liberty or property, without due process of law’. The 6th Amendment goes farther, saying that ‘the accused is to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of a counsel for his defense.’
In April of 1775, brave patriots stood against the red flag of Britain, when, without due process, British Soldiers were sent to confiscate weapons in the sleepy villages of Lexington and Concord. Captain Parker and the Lexington Minutemen did not face down the most powerful army in the World so that we can sit by and allow politicians and bureaucrats do the same to us today.
At one time Americans roared like lions for liberty, and we must do so again, not bleat like sheep for security. For, as Benjamin Franklin said, those who sacrifice liberty for perceived security, will end up with, and deserve, neither.
Making society a prison is never the answer, for even in prison the government cannot make you safe.
Republican control of the White House and the Senate does not mean our gun rights are safe. Republicans have a long history of supporting gun control. After the 1999 Columbine shooting, many Republicans, including many who campaigned as being pro-Second Amendment, eagerly cooperated with then-President Bill Clinton on gun control. Some supposedly pro-gun Republicans also tried to pass “compromise” gun control legislation after the Sandy Hook shooting.
Senator Marco Rubio has introduced legislation that uses tax dollars to bribe states to adopt red flag laws.
And it gets worse; President Trump’s new Attorney General William Barr expressed support for red flag laws. California Senator and leading gun control advocate Dianne Feinstein has expressed interest in working with Barr to deprive gun owners of due process.
It would not be surprising to see left-wing authoritarians like Feinstein work with right-wing authoritarians like Barr and Rubio on “compromise” legislation containing both a national red flag law and expanded background checks.
Hundreds of thousands of brave Americans fought and died to create and defend our Constitution and the Republic it created.
We have inherited our freedom and liberty from those who gave everything they had, and everything they ever would have, so that we can live free.
Americans must, with steadfast resolve, oppose any politician, of any political party, who attempts to tear our liberty away, or the sacrifices of our forefathers were in vain.
President Ronald Reagan once said ‘Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.’
We must stand uncompromisingly, and send a clear message to any politician who supports red flag laws that we will either take your vote in our favor, or your elected seat; for otherwise, we will fail all future generations and doom them to a life of government servitude.
The Constitution is just a piece of paper, unless we, the voters, hold all elected officials accountable to it.
The Red Flag of Tyranny is waving, and we, the ones entrusted with the defense of our natural, constitutionally protected rights, must rip it down.
