Red Flag Laws: Tools for Trolls and Tyrants

One of the most universally supported, and universally terrifying pieces of proposed legislation is the national red flag laws. (Also known as "take the guns first worry about due process later.") They are a system of laws that throws out both the second, fourth, and even the first amendment in the name of national safety. The safety of the nation has always been the excuse for government overreach. Such government overreach isn't unprecedented. From the Alien-Sedition acts to the PATRIOT act, Red Flag laws are nothing more than a continuation in a series of regulations designed to erode democracy. The dismantling of the Second Amendment has always been based on the false premies and myths of both the human condition and rational policy. The underlying flaw of Red Flag laws is that they'll be abused by governments, trolls, and bitter exes alike and the second amendment will continue to erode.

Red flag laws allow the government to take weapons out of the hands of those who are of serious danger to themselves and others. Proponents of red flag laws point to multiple mass shooters, the Parkland shooter in particular, who exhibited many warning signs before carrying out the shooting yet law enforcement was all but powerless to prevent this tragedy. While a valid point, it sets a tyrannical precedent allowing the government to determine who should have their firearms, and by extension their rights and means of self defense.

Red Flag Laws are often presented as a pragmatic response to the tragic gun violence in America. While with the increased number of mass shootings in recent memory might seem to affirm this belief, the statistics simply aren’t there to back up this claim. The United States has a total of over three hundred million people and has confirmed more guns than people. (with even more guns that we don’t know about) Yet considering this extreme number of firearms to population only a grand total of one hundred people die per day as the result of a gun.

- 60% of said deaths are suicides which is a separate issue.

- 10% are accidental killings, police killings, etc.

-Only around 30% are homicides which includes justifiable acts of self defense.

If more guns means more violence, violent crime should be skyrocketing. But it's not. Violent crime has actually gone down while civilian gun ownership has skyrocketed. Of course correlation doesn't necessarily equal causation. When you exclude the five cities with the strictest gun laws, the overall violent crime rate per capita drops even more. Considering this, and the fact that ninety seven percent of mass shootings occur in places where firearms are not permitted, we should reach the conclusion that adding restrictions on firearms are the cause, not the answer to an increased number of mass shootings.

Red flag laws have been passed in Colorado, immediately sparking backlash as multiple sheriffs declare their counties "second amendment sanctuaries." Sheriff Steve Reams of Weld County states that he would rather go to jail than enforce the new laws stating in an interview with CNN, "Once you fail to stand up for people's constitutional rights, then what's next?" The best example of the spirit behind these unconstitutional laws comes from president Donald Trump. "Take the guns first, go through due process second."

Red flag laws also inadvertently further divides the American people. By telling the people that their neighbor wants to take their guns, they absolve the government of any wrongdoing. (at least in the eyes of those having their rights taken away) They will convince the American people that it wasn't the government who took their rights away; it was other people. This newfound division amongst the people will open up Americans to the same divide and conquer strategy that nearly all authoritarian powers use against

their own people before they carry out another round of democide.

One reason these new laws should be universally terrifying is the power of the internet and the power of internet trolling. A 4chan thread showcased in Mel Magazine's article "The Rise of Weaponized Autism," a user posted a photo of themselves onto the messageboard. Another user got bored and decided to find out the location that the picture was taken and was able to pinpoint the exact spot the photo was taken by narrowing down clues inadvertently left in the picture. This exact thing is far from an isolated incident. When Shia LeBeouf decided to raise a flag stating, "he will not divide us" as part of an anti-Trump campaign. The users of 4chan managed to track down the flag using social media posts and weather patterns, and the flag was replaced with a Make America Great Again hat within twenty-four hours.

Mass flagging is already an issue in the online world that abuses the report system on social media to get accounts banned and de-platformed. One somewhat recent story is Larry Correia's example of why Facebook is "super dumb." He received a temporary ban from Facebook for insulting the imaginary people of an imaginary country in which she jumped to the aid of the noble, and fake people of Krasnovia and referred to the disgusting, and (also fake) people of Pinelandia as "goat rapists." The result was a three-day ban on Facebook. Everyone agreed it was ridiculous until Mike Glyer decided that they were all having "wrongfun" by making memes of the ridiculous situation. So Glyer decided to smear Correia on his website File 770. The few readers on his website (that weren't Chinese bots) decided to instigate another mass flagging campaign. They even bragged about it, saying, "My imaginary friends were insulted by Larry C, so I complained on their behalf." Correia was banned from Facebook again within a few days. The same principle applies to precisely what would happen with red flag laws resulting with a SWAT team shooting his dog.

A pre-existing problem in the online world is the act of SWATting, where users will call the police on a streamer and get them harassed on stream solely for perceived humor. As prevalent as this is already, it is not far fetched to believe that red flag laws will be abused in this way as well.

Another proposition is red flag tool for social media companies. Considering how social media companies are so eager to screw over people who they don't and how ready angry mobs are to purposely get those they dislike banned from social media. Furthermore the ease of the proposed social media flagging system should illustrate how bad of an idea this is. One might not have to worry about finding a person to Red Flag them; they could press a button and send a SWAT team to their house to violate their second amendment rights.

Red flag laws will do nothing but serve to erode our second and fourth amendment rights further. They will give power to malicious trolls allowing them to strip someone's rights away by a phone call or a press of a button. Red flag laws are almost universally supported by politicians, both Democrat and Republican, but have seen massive backlash by the American people. Ordinary people seem to distrust these laws, even those who are for gun control agree that red flag laws are extremely likely to be abused and are against these unpopular unconstitutional authoritarian and un-American laws.

Works Cited

"Trump has called for red flag laws. In Colorado, the gun control policy sparked a backlash." CNN Wire, 11 Sept. 2019. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A599141518/OVIC?u=apcc&sid=OVIC&xid=5f25f43b. Accessed 21 Oct. 2019.

Correia, Larry. “Banned Again. Facebook Gets Even Dumber, Part III: The Saga Continues.” Monster Hunter Nation, 16 Aug. 2019, https://monsterhunternation.com/2019/08/16/banned-again-facebook-gets-even-dumber-part-iii-the-saga-continues/.

Klee, Miles, et al. “The Rise of 'Weaponized Autism'.” MEL Magazine, 16 Oct. 2018, https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/the-rise-of-weaponized-autism-2.

O'Sullivan, Andrea. “The Government Wants a 'Red Flag' Social Media Tool. That's a Terrible Idea.” Reason.com, Reason, 20 Aug. 2019, https://reason.com/2019/08/20/the-government-wants-a-red-flag-social-media-tool-thats-a-terrible-idea/.

“4Chan Sleuths Use 'Flight Patterns' to Track down & Capture Shia Labeouf's Anti-Trump Flag.” RT International, https://www.rt.com/viral/380338-4chan-capture-anti-trump-flag/.

Kertscher, Tom. “Fact-Check: How Many Gun Deaths Are There per Day in the United States?” Statesman, Austin American-Statesman, 17 June 2019, https://www.statesman.com/news/20190617/fact-check-how-many-gun-deaths-are-there-per-day-in-united-states.

Morse, Brandon. “Over 97% of Mass Shootings Occurred on Gun-Free Zones, Research Shows.” TheBlaze, TheBlaze, 25 Jan. 2019, https://www.theblaze.com/news/2017/01/09/over-98-of-mass-shootings-occurred-on-gun-free-zones-research-shows.