The Patriot Post® · DOJ Launches Initiative to Confiscate Guns

Leftists hate the Rule of Law, perhaps most especially the Second Amendment. They’re not big fans of the Fourth Amendment, either, as evidenced by the push for “red flag” laws. On that point, this past Saturday, Joe Biden’s Justice Department announced the launch of the National Extreme Risk Protection Order Resource Center. Its purpose is to aid in taking guns from people.

The center “will provide our partners across the country with valuable resources to keep firearms out of the hands of individuals who pose a threat to themselves or others,” said Attorney General Merrick Garland in a press release. “The establishment of the Center is the latest example of the Justice Department’s work to use every tool provided by the landmark Bipartisan Safer Communities Act to protect communities from gun violence.”

An Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO) is a court-ordered disarming of a dangerous individual. Laws permitting such orders are colloquially known as “red flag” laws. So far, 21 states and the District of Columbia have such laws, and other states are considering them.

In theory, these laws and orders are meant to keep guns out of the hands of people who would illegally use them to harm someone else. Who wouldn’t think that’s a worthy goal?

Well, it depends on who judges another individual’s worthiness and how that process plays out. For example, this may surprise people on the Left, but sometimes women lie about men. That’s where the Fourth Amendment guarantee of due process comes in because no one should be deprived of their Second Amendment rights without it. The possibly malicious testimony of a jilted lover ought to be fairly weighed in court, as should the random report of a concerned “Karen” who sees a social media post she doesn’t like.

Moreover, conservatives have good reason to fear Biden’s Department of Two-Tiered Justice henchmen being the arbiters of threats or even just aiding this disarmament. Who are the people who “pose a threat”? Pro-lifers? “Christian nationalists”? “MAGA extremists”? It surely won’t include Hunter Biden, who lied on a federal gun form, which is a felony.

Biden has railed against guns for years, promising to ban and take them and even, on multiple occasions, threatening American gun owners with F-15s and nuclear weapons. Joe Biden is the red flag.

Also on Saturday, Kamala Harris went to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, the site of the 2018 massacre of 17 people, to push for the same kinds of “red flag” laws. Harris issued a “challenge” to the remaining 29 states without them, saying, “We got some resources for you to help you implement the work that you have done that has been the work of a leader on this tragic issue.”

To make her point as emotional as possible, she again trotted out misleading statistics about kids: “The leading cause of death for the children of America is gun violence.” No, it’s not.

In short, we simply don’t trust this lying, power-grabbing administration.

Neither do Republicans, several of whom were surprised by the DOJ’s weekend announcement.

“What the hell is this evil?” howled Representative Thomas Massie. “A Federal Red Flag center; We did not authorize this. Announced, of course, just hours after the omnibus passes.”

Team Biden and others claim authority from the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, passed and signed in 2022. If you’re wondering, the Firearms Policy Coalition posted a list of the Republicans who voted for it.

But Massie and renowned gun researcher John Lott say the administration’s claim is a lie. “Congress never authorized the U.S. Department of Justice to create this resource center,” the two write. “The administration confuses ‘grants … to implement state … mental health courts, drug courts, veterans’ courts, and extreme risk protection order programs’ with creating an entirely new center for one of these areas.”

The two also detail how “red flag” laws circumvent due process by removing key steps before firearms are confiscated. How ridiculous can this be? Massie and Lott write:

Andrew Pollack, who lost his daughter in the 2017 Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, recently had an Extreme Risk Protection Order used against him by a neighbor in rural Oregon. When Pollack finally had his hearing in court, the judge didn’t even need to hear a defense because there was no evidence that Pollack had threatened anyone. Unfortunately, while disarmed, he faced a mountain lion outside his home. His dog tangled with the mountain lion, requiring 50 stitches on his side. As is virtually always the case, there was no punishment for the neighbors bringing the false claim [emphasis added].

If you don’t think the Biden administration will inject the process with anti-gun steroids, you haven’t been paying attention to this lawless, open-borders, student-loan-transferring, EV- and vaccine-mandating administration.

Unfortunately, it’s not just Biden. More localized organizations, often run by left-wing operatives, are seducing suburban women with attempts at gun control that sound well-meaning and helpful but can be grossly distorted by Democrat politicos with detrimental consequences for law-abiding gun owners. Mark Alexander detailed that again yesterday.

Democrats know the primary obstacle to their tyranny is an armed population. The bad news is that they keep pushing stuff like this to disarm more people. The good news is that gun sales seem to hit records every time Democrats renew their push.