On the recordJune 24, 2022
The State with the most mass shootings is California. California has the most restrictive gun laws in America. California already has a red flag law. But more important to this debate, red flag laws subvert due process protections and threaten the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens. Why would we agree to borrow more money that we don't have so the Federal Government can give it to States to enact laws that don't work and that actually threaten the rights of our citizens? Why would we do that? Second, this legislation singles out law-abiding citizens under the age of 21 by giving the government discretion to delay, for any reason, their constitutionally protected right to a firearm--a right, by the way, affirmed, yet again, by the Supreme Court just yesterday. We all want to keep firearms out of the hands of people that shouldn't have them, and I am willing to consider ways to better identify people with mental health challenges, but I can't help but think about that 20-year-old paratrooper stationed in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Our Nation entrusted him to defend us with an automatic weapon or a multimillion-dollar-weapon system, but we can't trust him with a semiautomatic weapon to defend themselves in their own home? What about the 20-year-old spouse back home in Spring Lake, North Carolina, alone because our paratrooper has deployed in service of our Nation. Are we to tell this spouse that the government doesn't trust you to defend your home?…
