RED FLAG LAWS WOULD BE ANOTHER FARCE

RED FLAG LAWS WOULD BE ANOTHER FARCE

By Domenick J. Maglio PhD. Traditional Realist

Every time there is a mass killing, the automatic response from the progressives is “more gun control.” It does not matter to these gun control fanatics that the killing of 22 and many wounded took place in a “gun free” mall zone. The other mantra used by the gun control advocates was immediately echoed, “get rid of assault rifles.” This is also a ridiculous demand as “automatic rifles” were already banned, including the AK47, in the 1986 Fire Arm Owner Protection Law.  The term “assault weapons” that look like automatic rifles such as AR15 are ill defined and are currently able to be purchased after a background check. They are now trying to ban them.

This time the gun control politicians attempted a new subtle tactic to diminish our Second Amendment rights. These conniving lawmakers decided to go backdoor by attempting to pass another law to take guns away from citizens. There are already numerous laws on the books to confiscate guns from the mentally ill and felons. They are constantly trying to increase this net.

The so-called “Red Flag Law” is a clever catch phrase. A Red Flag on the beach or wildlife preserve means danger. Red Flagging an individual means he is a danger to others. There is already an involuntary civil committing of individuals.  The person has to be evaluated by a mental health professional and appear in front of a judge. The judge can order the person held for a more comprehensive evaluation.  If the person is deemed dangerous to self and others or is a felon he is unable to maintain possession of his weapons.

Our public schools have been staffed with counselors, certified psychologists and re source officers who can evaluate students’ mental health status and recommend placing them outside their homes as needed. They can be placed with other relatives, group homes, lock-down facilities, or mental health institutions.

The problem in the United States is not a lack of laws but an avalanche of laws that are not being enforced. The Parkland Florida mass school shooter, Nikolas Cruz, had voiced his desire to kill an assortment of people on many occasions. His own family as well as professionals flagged him as potentially violently explosive. His student adolescence status afforded him too many protection rights not to be permanently removed from school to protect innocent students. The evidence of his mental health instability and his clear intentions were open for everyone to see. Yet again there were no actions taken to enforce the existing laws to remove him from the school and isolate him in an institution to protect the public.

As a clinical psychologist at a Florida prison I was required to do a psychological evaluation on a convicted rapist whose release was pending. He admitted directly to me that he had every intention of raping a female once he was released. I wrote this in my evaluation and my recommendation was that he not be released. Nevertheless he was released. The inmate returned six months later on another sexual assault conviction. 

As a society you cannot have it both ways. We cannot let the mentally ill violent criminals have all the same rights as law-abiding citizens. When people break the law they should receive a trial by their peers with due process. The professionals decide to or not to release a seriously disturbed person back into the general population. This release should only happen when the person possesses no further threat to the general public as well as themselves. Mental health professionals have not only a responsibility to their clients but also to the public.

The Red Flag Laws, first of all are not necessary if we prosecute dangerous individuals under the existing laws. The reality is we do not. Accusing a person of committing a crime and incarcerating them without a trial to prove their guilt or innocence is the opposite of American blind justice. It is giving the government the right to strip a citizen of their legal protections not only of the Second Amendment. They should not take our right to a fair trial where the individual is innocent until proven guilty.

Dictatorships such as China in Hong Kong use the power of the state to arbitrarily lock up individuals without allowing them any civil rights. Red Flagging people without citizen protection is more onerous than random mass killings by deranged individuals.

There are too many cultural and dysfunctional family variables that have to be examined to understand the source of these mass killings. We should never permit our federal representatives to erase the God given right  of our Constitution and Bill of Rights for any trumped up emotional quick fix to any problem.

Domenick Maglio, PhD. is a columnist carried by various newspapers, an author of several books and owner/director of Wider Horizons School, a college prep program. Dr. Maglio is an author of weekly newspaper articles, INVASION WITHIN  and a new book entitled, IN CHARGE PARENTING In a PC World. You can see many of Dr. Maglio’s articles at www.drmaglio.blogspot.com.