“One of the greatest potential abuses inflicted on Pennsylvania gun owners comes under the guise of ‘Red Flag’ gun confiscation…” Red Flag laws are one of my biggest concerns. These laws violate more than the 2A, but also the 4A, 5A, 6A, 8A, and 14A.
Republican Representative Robert Leadbeter, of Columbia, PA, has introduced preemption legislation that, if passed, could prohibit lawmakers from enacting Red Flag laws in Pennsylvania. Although such orders, also known as Extreme Risk Protection Orders (ERPOs), currently do not exist in the state, Pennsylvania’s Democrat-controlled House has been beating that drum in recent years, not to anyone’s surprise.
Fortunately, Pennsylvania remains balanced to some extent due to its Republican-controlled Senate, particularly the judiciary committee, which has put the brakes on a number of anti-Second Amendment bills, including those seeking expanded background checks, Red Flag laws, and a bill that imposes felony charges on any individual who sells or purchases a firearm or firearm part lacking serial numbers.
Literacy and general coherence permit Leadbeter to make sense as a politician, a rare quality in the political cesspool, as he points out that Red Flag laws not only desecrate the Second Amendment, but also act in clear defiance of due process and America’s historical principle of being “innocent until proven guilty.”
By Darwin Nercesian
