I actually sat and watched most of the Democratic debate this week. The one thing that I took away from it was a Presidential candidate in a national debate, coming right out and saying that he wanted to take away our AR-15’s and AK’s, and getting a pretty good response. What bothered me the most was the reaction of the people there. They seemed very supportive of this whole idea of giving away their 2nd Amendment rights. I wonder if they really know what they would be giving up.

We are talking about abrogating one of the Amendments to our constitution. This scares the hell out of me. How soon before someone decides that we really don’t need the right to free speech? Or that we really don’t need a trial and jury of our peers?

For years, candidates have said that we need “common-sense gun laws.” I’m still waiting for a common-sense gun law that does not infringe upon our rights. (Infringe – 1. To transgress; violate. 2. To encroach; trespass — American Heritage Dictionary.) The 2nd Amendment is the only one to state “shall not be infringed.” This should give you an idea of how much importance our founding fathers placed on this amendment. In its June 26, 2015, decision, a 5-4 majority of the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the 2nd Amendment confers an individual’s right to keep and bear arms. In order to remove these rifles legally, they would have to change our constitution and remove the 2nd Amendment. Our Founders deliberately made changing the constitution difficult. That’s why we have to have ¾’s of the states ratify a proposed change. Not an easy thing to do.

Our current crop of candidates want to remove these “weapons of war” from our streets, but their understanding of modern rifles seems to be a little limited. AR-15’s are semi-automatic rifles. One trigger pull, one round fired. Same with civilian AK’s. Neither AR-15’s or civilian AK’s are assault rifles, nor are they 3-round burst or full auto capable. No country in the world sends their troops into battle with a AR-15 or a civilian model AK. They would get their butts handed to them in a hurry. AR’s and AK’s can be shot rapidly; rapidly and accurately, that’s another story. More people are killed every year with handguns than are killed with rifles of all kinds (FBI Crime Stats).

I understand that we have a violence/mental health problem in our country. However, taking away someone’s right to own a weapon because someone else shot up a store with that kind of weapon is insanity. Ask almost any law enforcement officer and they will tell you that when they run across someone with mental health problems, it’s almost impossible to force them to get the help they need. We all know someone that really should not own a weapon, handgun or rifle. That being said, until they are arrested, tried and convicted of a crime they have a constitutional right to bear arms. This brings me to Red Flag Laws.

I’ve read through Oregon’s Red Flag law and I’m not real comfortable with it as it is written. (ORS 166.525-543 in case you would like to read it for yourself, and I recommend that you do. My thanks to Officer Curtis for helping me find it.) I understand why there is a push to remove dangerous weapons from violent or suicidal people. I’ve also read-up on how this law has been put into effect so far. On many of the cases I read about, I have to agree with having these people’s weapons removed by the court. Most of these people had already committed a crime that would preclude them from owning a weapon. But the idea of taking away a person’s rights based on the premise that that a person might commit a crime in the future, makes the hair on my neck stand up.

This drive to preempt crime is treading very close to trampling on all of our rights as citizens of this great nation. This is an area that we need to be very careful when writing laws. After talking with a local representative about the Red Flag Law, I found out just how hard it will be to change or fix a law that is already on the books. So, we need to get it right the first time. A message to all our lawmakers… Stop with the knee-jerk reactions or emotions and write good laws. Not ones that will be overturned the first time they are challenged in court.