Negative Effects of Colorado's Red Flag Law to Gun Owners
Taking effect on the first day of 2020, the Colorado Red Flag law triggers a debate between the supporters of gun control and those who fight for the rights to gun ownership.
Is this a good move by the state, or is it another infringement on Coloradan's Second Amendment rights?
What is the Colorado Red Flag Law?
The Colorado Red Flag law is a recently signed law that gives a judge the power to suspend the rights of gun ownership of someone who may be a danger to himself or to others.
The petition must come from either police officers or civilians. A judge, after receiving the petition, will review the case and may give the power to the police to seize their guns.
Colorado is not the first state to implement this kind of law. Other states have preceded Colorado such as Connecticut and Indiana, both of which passed such laws after tragic mass shootings. Colorado is just one of the 17 other states that have a Red Flag Law.
This law, of course, comes with some negative effects, which gun owners should protest. If there is one thing that is good about it compared to other states, it is the fact that the state of Colorado will provide an attorney to the gun owner whose “sanity” and “morality” are put into question.
But who decides if you are a danger? And is the decision-making process fair?
How Does it Affect Gun Owners?
One problematic aspect of this is law is this:
If a gun owner’s rights are suspended, and if his guns are taken away, only the accuser’s side is heard.
This, of course, is a one-sided implementation of the law. Ideally, both parties—the accuser and the gun owner—must be able to present their cases to the judge and prove their causes.
The gun owner in this law has no opportunity to talk. He will not be cross-examined by the attorney of the filing party, and neither would the gun owner’s lawyer be able to make a cross-examination, even if the accuser is just making up stories.
In a nutshell, the Colorado Red Flag Law has the following negative effects to gun owners:
So, is this a fair practice? Without cross-examinations, how does a judge know who is telling the truth?
Gun owners can be unfairly accused, and once their guns are taken away, how will they protect themselves?
Learning More from the Concealed Carry Class
As you buy your gun and on your way to getting your Colorado Concealed Weapons Permit, you must look forward to learning more about the law.
As a gun owner, you need to understand how this new law will affect your rights and impact your duties as a person carrying a concealed firearm.
If a Concealed Carry Class is not covering this subject in-depth, look for a different class that discusses this new law in detail.
Why? Because if you do not know the grounds for which an accuser can file a petition against you, how will you protect yourself from them?
Conclusion
The Colorado Red Flag law may have been well-intentioned. Surely, everyone would like to stop a mentally ill person from going on a shooting rampage. Unfortunately, this law won’t do that as much as it will remove guns from law-abiding citizens who haven’t done a thing wrong.
Gun owners bought their firearms for one reason: to protect themselves.
Now that this law has taken effect, the tides have turned, and a false accuser is given the high ground. The gun owner is now left with no means to keep himself safe from predators—maybe the same ones who filed the petition to begin with.