Gun Laws and Psychotic Thinking

by John Anthony, The Truth Monster, ©2023

(Aug. 3, 2023) — Red Flag Laws are gaining popularity because they appear a responsible way to reduce gun violence.

In theory Red Flag laws prevent crimes before they occur by removing guns from a person who appears mentally unstable. Under Tennessee Gov. Lee’s version, once receiving a complaint about a gunowner the petitioner believes is a potential future danger, local enforcement authorities or a judge determine the gunowner’s mental state, whether to confiscate the owner’s weapons, and for how long.

But politicians are masters of writing bills that promise one thing and deliver the opposite. You might remember these:

• The “Stimulus Bill” promised millions of “shovel ready” jobs only to find they would take years if ever to appear.
• When the Recovery Acts’ green jobs failed to materialize government relabeled janitors and sanitation workers environmental positions.
• The Inflation Reduction Act, originally sold as a way cut inflation by reducing the deficit, actually spent $663 billion more while the deficit continues to grow.

(Yes, politicians are not always honest or informed.)

Red Flag laws are a political tactic that fails to reduce the mass shootings that encourage them, but can disarm honest citizens who may need their weapons for defense. Worse, they embolden anti-gun proponents to become snitches, pitting neighbor against neighbor in an already fractured society.

Despite legislative rhetoric, in practice Red Flag laws require all law enforcement and/or judges involved in an incident to be experts in abnormal psychology, Constitutional 2nd Amendment supporters, and impartial judges and juries. That’s a tall order in today’s world.

All needed to remove an owner’s gun rights are a handful of anti-gun activists in official positions. This is why, no matter how heinous the crime, we have jury trials and ‘innocent until proven guilty’.

From financial investors, to racetrack handicappers, and law enforcement, everyone would like to predict the future. Few do it well. Tennessee’s Red Flag law will not improve that.

Read the rest here.