Gun Confiscation Orders -- commonly known as “red-flag laws” -- have been totally ineffective. Can anyone think of a mass shooting in American history that would have been prevented by these laws? Gun Owners of America has pointed out that Gun Confiscation Orders were in place in California prior to the Thousand Oaks shooting. They were in place in Illinois prior to the Aurora shooting. They were in place in Connecticut prior to the Sandy Hook shooting. As for the Parkland shooter -- his guns could have been taken away at any time under preexisting law by just charging him with a crime. The fact that police did not do so because they regarded him as “A LOW RISK” meant that they couldn’t have obtained a “red-flag” Gun Confiscation Order either. Gun Confiscation Orders are not about policy -- or public safety. Rather, they are about “putting points on the board” for the gun control lobby. Please oppose these repressive bills.

I agree with Gun Owners of America that red flag laws are a horrific attack on due process. The “ex parte” orders -- common to all of the “red-flag” gun confiscations -- would strip a gun owner of his constitutional rights with no notice and no due process whatsoever. Under the Blumenthal-Graham bill, ex parte orders can be obtained by a telephone call. We know, from experience, judges presented with these ex parte orders would virtually sign anything that is put before them. In an analogous case in New Mexico, a housewife was able to obtain a restraining order against David Letterman for supposedly sending her coded messages over her TV set. It’s no wonder that even the American Civil Liberties Union agrees that red-flag Gun Confiscation Orders are unconstitutional. Please reject this joke of a bill that would create Gun Confiscation Orders. And know that GOA will rate this legislation as anti-gun.

Gun Owners of America tells me that the Senate Judiciary Committee has announced its intention to hold hearings on Gun Confiscation Orders (sugar-coated as “red-flag laws”). Under these Orwellian bills, the police or an angry relative can telephone a judge -- and get a Gun Confiscation Order to strip a gun owner of his Second, Fourth, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights with no due process whatsoever. The first thing the gun owner would learn of the process is when a SWAT Team arrived at his home in the middle of the night -- ready to ransack his home and, if he resisted, to arrest or kill him. Think this is far-fetched? Within the last few months, police summarily executed 60-year-old Ferndale, Maryland, resident Gary Willis while serving a ‘red-flag’ order at 5:17 a.m. in the morning. Sure, one can spend $10-20,000 to hire a lawyer and try to convince the judge he made a mistake. This is a fool's errand and it turns our system of justice on its head. The government should prove that people are guilty; it should not be individuals proving they are innocent. These procedures would have fit in well in Germany during World War II, but they are absolutely out of place in America. Please do everything you can to kill these red-flag gun grabs.