The Personal Website of Mark W. Dawson

Red Flag, Yellow Flag, and No Flag

In my observation “Gun Control” I have noted many issues and concerns regarding Gun Control. I briefly touched on a national registry of all firearms, and perhaps ammunition, in the United States. Whenever firearms are purchased, traded, gifted, and transferred this information would be recorded in a national database. Anytime someone in the United States interacts with law enforcement and is in possession of a firearm, the police would check this database and if the firearm is not registered properly it could be confiscated and perhaps the person would be arrested or detained. While this sounds like a solution in practice it would probably be impractical. To create this registration database, and to keep it current and accurate, would be very difficult given the nature of how firearms are purchased, traded, gifted, and transferred from one lawful person to another.

A perfect example of this was the recent incident of the New York Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman being pulled over and stopped at gunpoint by Connecticut police. His car had been stolen, but had been found several days later and returned to him. After it was recovered by police in New York and returned to Cashman, New York cops never removed the vehicle from a list of stolen vehicles (see the story here). When a policeman ran a check on the car that Cashman was driving it came up as stolen and they stopped him at gunpoint. If the police had followed normal procedures, they would have arrested Cashman and confiscated his car until the situation was resolved after bureaucratic and/or legal proceedings. As he was a public figure, they recognized him and resolved the situation on the spot. However, if it was not a public figure that was recognized then normal procedures would have been in effect, causing many difficulties for the innocent person. If the government cannot accurately keep track of stolen cars what makes you believe that they can accurately keep track of legal firearms (which are much more numerous and have many more transfers than stolen cars).

Now, however, many gun control advocates are suggesting “Red Flag” laws that would prohibit the sale or possession of firearms to persons who have shown a propensity for violence or mental illness that they could be a danger to themselves or others. While these may seem a noble ideal in practice it results in a violation of human rights, and they may also be unconstitutional. Unconstitutional in that they not only violate the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution but it would also violate and the principle of “innocent until proven guilty” and the due process concept of American jurisprudence. In this country we only take away the rights of a person after they have committed a crime, been prosecuted and found guilty, and sentenced for their crime. And this is all done with the benefit of due process to protect the rights of the accused. I have not yet seen how any “Red Flag” legislation could meet this burden. To do so otherwise leads to the absurdity of “Alice's Adventures in Wonderland”; "Sentence first–verdict afterward."

A violation of human rights as they would constrict a person’s ability to defend themselves and their families from criminal acts by others, as well as safeguarding themselves and other citizens from potential oppression by the government. For more on this, I would direct you to my article “The meaning of the 1st and 2nd Amendments of the United States Constitution”.

It would also result in the overwhelming of the justice system with appeals as to whether the “Red Flag” was proper or not. It also raises the specter of government interference in the private affairs of a citizen conducting transactions with another private citizen. And the problem of gun violence is not guns. The problem is as Dr. Ben Carson said after the tragedy of the mass murder of the black church members of Charleston SC in June of 2015:

"I think we have to start is going to the heart of the matter. The heart of the matter is not guns. The heart of the matter is the heart. The heart and soul of people. You know, this young man didn't wake up yesterday and suddenly turn into a maniac. Clearly, there have been things in his background, in his upbringing that led to the type of mentality that would allow him to do something like this. And one of the things that I think that we really need to start concentrating on in this country is once again instilling the right kinds of values, particularly in our young people. You know, we're so busy giving away all of our values and principles for the sake of political correctness that we have people floating around out there with no solid foundation or beliefs. "

To which I say - Amen!