The myth of "due process"
and Red Flag laws

By John Harris. Apr 17, 2023

Governor Bill Lee made a public announcement on April 11, 2023, that he was calling on the Tennessee Legislature to pass a law – immediately – to make sure mentally ill people do not have access to firearms. He did not use the term “Red Flag” law, but that is exactly what the type of law he described would be. Reports from various political observers and Legislators indicate that this public demand for action by the Governor has created a lot of problems for the Republicans in the Legislature – as if they did not already have enough after the national attention from the expulsion vote.

A “Red Flag” law is sometimes referred to as an “extreme risk protection order”. Independent of the label that someone places on it to conceal its purpose, a Red Flag law is a gun control law. It is the darling of the progressive left and gun control advocates. It is a type of law that many conservatives and Republicans will deny supporting in candidate surveys and political pledges.

A “Red Flag” law is a scheme to intentionally violate a constitutionally protected right (gun ownership or possession) by establishing a system where a complaint can be made and an “ex parte” order (that is, a hearing and the issuance of an order without notice to the individual) entered to allow law enforcement to go to a person’s home, residence, or place of business and seize all of the person’s firearms (and potentially those belonging to others who also live there). The rationalization for these ex parte seizure proceedings is that the person is sufficiently mentally or emotionally disturbed that the individual posses an immediate risk of harm to themselves or others. The delusional rationalization, the unconstitutional component, is that if government could only seize the firearms that such a person owns or possesses then the risk is neutralized. .....