(Letter to the Editor - Photo Illustration - MetroCreativeConnection)

With increasing gun violence and mass shootings, anti-gun Democrats are seeking gun confiscations from potentially violent people through red flag laws.

Anti-gun Democrats (and RINO Republicans) seek allowing law enforcement to automatically disarm so-accused individuals, without a hearing or any due process, whatsoever and with no process written into the law, for citizens to have their firearms returned if proven innocent. If the complaint is proven false, the accused forfeits his firearm to the state, which is unconstitutional.

The Fifth Amendment to the Constitution reads, in part, “no person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property, without the due process of law.” Firearms are property.

The Second Amendment to the Constitution reads “A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” Confiscating citizens’ firearms without due process is an infringement.

Red flag laws should require law enforcement to obtain a writ from a judge or magistrate after reviewing the evidence of a citizen’s potential violence, before confiscating a citizen’s legally owned firearm(s).

A constitutional red flag law would require a process for getting firearms returned and in good working condition, upon acquittal of charges. Ideally, firearms would be automatically returned upon acquittal. This isn’t what anti-gunners seek, because their ultimate goal is disarming American citizens.

In America, it is the state’s duty to prove a citizen guilty in a court of law. It is not the citizen’s duty to prove their innocence to the state or their competence to own a firearm.

Red flag laws should contain harsh penalties for anyone perjuring themself to law enforcement, out of malice, to get another citizen’s firearms confiscated. Many reprobates use red flag laws to falsely report ones with which they are angry, such as spouses going through “heated” divorces, etc.

Red flag laws could work if written and executed with fair due process, or the law would be deemed unconstitutional by the SCOTUS. WIthout the due process clause written in, judges and law enforcement officials in anti-gun states would abuse the law to unconstitutionally disarm as many citizens as possible.

Liberal Democrats are more concerned about non-existent constitutional rights for illegal migrant gangs than about the constitutional rights of everyday Americans.

Steve Wolverton

Parkersburg