Colorado Enacts ‘Red Flag’ Law to Seize Guns From High-Risk Owners – Do You Support ‘Red Flag’ Laws?

What’s the story?

• Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) has signed a “red flag” gun bill into law, giving judges the power to order firearms seized from people determined to pose a danger to themselves or others.
• Half the counties in Colorado have declared themselves “Second Amendment sanctuary counties,” and are discouraging sheriffs and judges from enforcing the Extreme Risk Protection Order.

What are people saying?

Supporters of the red flag law

“This law will not prevent every shooting, but it can be used in a targeted way to make sure that those who are suffering from a mental health crisis are able to temporarily have a court order in place that helps make sure they don’t harm themselves or others,” Polis said. “Today we may be saving the life of your nephew, your niece, your grandchild.”

Critics of the red flag law

• Weld County Sheriff Steve Reams told CNN in late March that he’d rather go to jail than enforce the red flag bill.

"It's a matter of doing what's right. Going in and taking their guns and leaving the scene, I can't see how that makes them less of a risk. It just takes one tool away.”

• Eagle County Sheriff James Van Beek shared similar sentiments on “Fox & Friends” Monday.
• “I just became very, very concerned because of the whole way they went about it. It was supposed to be for mental health. It was supposed to be for taking care of people … and at least in my opinion, they went about the process totally backwards,” Van Beek said.

“They went after the people’s rights. They went after [it] in a manner that I didn’t think gave them due process because they said, ‘well we need to do these things. We need to take these things away from them. We need to take these tools away from them.’ But they never provided any kind of assistance. So there was no outlet. So to me there wasn’t any kind of due process.”

What do you think?

Do you support “red flag” gun laws? Or do you support “Second Amendment sanctuary counties”? Take action and tell your reps, then share your thoughts below.

—Josh Herman

(Photo Credit: iStockphoto / DmyTo)