WASHINGTON, D.C. –-(Ammoland.com)-Congress is hiding a red flag law in the William M. (Mac) Thornberry National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for the Fiscal Year 2021 (H.R. 6395).
The NDAA authorizes the military to “red flag” anyone subject to the Uniform Code of Military Conduct. According to the NDAA, a friend or relative could report the service member as “abusive.” An ex parte “court” will hear the claims of the friend or relative and decided whether to take firearms away from the accused. The gun owner doesn’t have a chance to defend themselves or even know that someone is accusing them of abuse.
In the civilian world, law enforcement and the courts refer to red flag laws as Extreme Risk Protection Orders (ERPO). The NDAA refers to these red flag laws as Military Court Gun Confiscation Orders (GCOs). Even though the names of the rules are different, both laws work primarily the same way. Like ERPOs, GCOs lack due process. The court would assume the military member is guilty of abuse until they could prove their innocence as a later date.
According to gun rights advocates, the same service members that swear an oath to the Constitution will lose their Constitutionally guaranteed rights under the new NDAA. Military police or SWAT teams would carry out a raid of the gun owner’s house in the middle of the night to strip them of their gun rights.
The service member would then have to prove their innocence to get their firearms back from the same government that they are protecting.
The NDAA leaves a lot of gray areas in the GCO provision that would be filled in by the future White House administration. If an anti-gun politician becomes President, like Democrat Presidential Candidate Joe Biden, then the amount of evidence needed to strip the rights of the service member decrease or the amount of evidence to get the guns back would increase significantly. Anti-gun politicians seem to have this flexibility built into the NDAA intentionally.
Politicians have slipped in this Constitutionally questionable provision into the NDAA under cover of darkness. Politicians on both sides on the aisle have been quiet over the inclusion of the GCO provision. It is unknown why there is silence from self-proclaimed pro-gun Republicans on the issue of GCOs in the NDAA. Some gun rights advocates theorize that they do not know that the provision is in the NDAA. Others feel the Republicans are compromising with anti-gun Democrats to get the NDAA passed through the House of Representatives.
Certain “pro-gun” Republicans are open to Red Flag laws. Dan Crenshaw purports to be pro-gun, but he has called for Red Flag laws in the past.
Gun Owners of America is asking all their members to email their representatives and asking them to oppose H.R. 6395. The gun-rights group is also asking their members to call their representatives at 202-225-3121 to ask them to protect the rights of those that protect us.
Gun Owners of America created an easy to use form at gunowners.org/na07212020/
About John Crump
John is a NRA instructor and a constitutional activist. He is the former CEO of Veritas Firearms, LLC and is the co-host of The Patriot News Podcast which can be found at www.blogtalkradio.com/patriotnews. John has written extensively on the patriot movement including 3%’ers, Oath Keepers, and Militias. In addition to the Patriot movement, John has written about firearms, interviewed people of all walks of life, and on the Constitution. John lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and sons and is currently working on a book on leftist deplatforming methods and can be followed on Twitter at @crumpyss, on Facebook at realjohncrump, or at www.crumpy.com.