FLASHBACK: The Swamp Gets the Trump Administration to Endorse Red Flag Laws

The uproar from the Dayton and El Paso shootings has made the political class and media elites firmly believe that something must be done to address gun violence.

As a result, Republicans have desperately kowtowed to the media’s pressure and are now putting dangerous red flag gun confiscation legislation at the top of the agenda.

Although it may appear that red flag laws came out of nowhere, they have been a policy fixture in over a dozen states, predominately Democratically-controlled states.

However, states like Florida opened up the floodgates when it decided to pass a red flag law of its own after the Parkland Massacre in 2018.

Lost among this noise is also that the Trump administration took subtle action a few months after the Parkland massacre occurred.

On December 18, 2018, the Trump administration released a statement endorsing red flag legislation.

This was part of President Trump’s School Safety Commission (Commission) that was created after the shooting and was put under Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos’s watch.

In this report, it released various recommendations for addressing school safety and violence.

One of them included an endorsement of red flag gun confiscation orders.

According to the statement, the “Commission endorses Extreme Risk Protection Order laws, which give authorities a temporary way to keep those who threaten society from possessing or purchasing firearms.”

Fast forward to 2019, and now red flag legislation seems like is going to be a hotly-contested issue at the federal level.

Nevertheless, gun owners should be aware that red flag legislation has been on the presidential agenda for some time.

Gun owners may never know what the motive behind this previous statement was. One can speculate that elements within the Trump administration want to subvert his America First agenda by getting him involved in passing unconstitutional gun control schemes.

But now is not the time to merely speculate. Gun owners will have to stand up to Congress and make sure red flag legislation never makes it to Trump’s desk.

 

 

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