Both the Michigan Legislature and the state's entire Executive Branch are now controlled by opponents of armed self-defense rights. It's likely we will see attempts to pass gun control legislation soon. The Michigan Legislature is expected to begin taking up policy items in committees by late February and early March.
Shortly after the November election, MCRGO began to meet with allied gun groups to discuss strategy for the upcoming legislative session. One result of those meetings has been the creation of discussion points for educational purposes -not only directed at legislators, but also the general public, and fellow gun owners.
Along with Attorney General Nessel's pledge to ban all forms of defensive carry inside the State Capitol, Governor Whitmer has listed three early firearms goals. They are: storage mandates, extreme risk protection orders, and long gun registration. We covered storage mandates in the E'News two weeks ago. Today we turn our attention to Red Flag laws.
When discussing policy, it's helpful to focus on the practical implications of gun control laws on crime and public safety. Use these discussion points below to craft communication with your elected officials and social media posts in your own words. Your personal statements will have deeper impact than copied and pasted form content. This link will help you contact your Michigan legislators.
Why MCRGO Opposes Red Flag laws...
Red Flag is a poor fit to the problem. There are already processes to ban firearm possession based on mental health, criminal convictions, outstanding criminal charges, and protection orders. Michigan's Mental Health Code already addresses this subject and provides more protections to the public and the individual than Red Flag would. If there's a problem with the existing process, why aren't we talking about that?
Firearm seizures, especially those conducted without prior notice of action, inherently involve armed confrontations between authorities and citizens, posing a risk of injury or death to both and innocent bystanders. Red Flag laws will lead to more Breonna Taylor incidents.
Red Flag does nothing to address mental health. These bills do not provide the supposedly dangerous individual any sort of treatment, services, monitoring, or incapacitation during the period of the order. The individual often is left to their own devices, in an increasingly agitated state. Nothing would be in place to stop that individual from causing harm to self or others by other means.
Red Flag laws strip Second Amendment rights of individuals by confiscating firearms without due process. They allow for a court to issue ex parte (meaning the accused is not present) firearm confiscation orders. A person could be forcibly disarmed of otherwise lawfully possessed firearms before they had an opportunity to contest the accusations. This is a clear denial of constitutional due process protections.
Red Flag is inherently racist, sexist, and denies due process protections to those who most lack the resources to defend themselves in court.
More background on Red Flag laws from Dr. John Lott can be found HERE.
