“New laws will be taking effect in the first few months of 2024, including a set of laws that aim to increase gun safety in Michigan,” CBS Detroit reported Wednesday. “There are four significant gun laws that will be implemented in 2024 that will require things like safe storage, universal background checks, creating Extreme Risk Protection Orders also called “Red flag laws,” and a gun ban for those convicted of domestic violence.”
That may be what they’re aiming at, but if they think infringements that haven’t worked anywhere they’ve been tried – and they have been, in lots of places, for years – they’re going to miss the barn.
‘Safe storage” is a euphemism for a mandate to render your gun useless if you ever need to get to it in an emergency. They want your guns locked up. They want your ammunition locked up separately. An attacker isn’t going to wait.
You’ll see excuses like some of the edicts have clauses that provide for a weapon being in your control, but the people making them know that many gun owners don’t walk around the house with a holstered firearm, and besides, a sudden situation can come up without warning, like multiple assailants observing no restrictions, where you need to reach something more, and the best response requires one of those “weapons of war” and “high capacity magazines” the grabbers are always prattling on about.
The “high-risk” gun possessors, the ones who pass out with a gun on the coffee table, are never going to take safety precautions, and no one-size-fits-all “solution” will do anything but take choices away from gun owners. And never forget the Merced pitchfork murders…
“Universal background checks” is another deceptive term that masks true intent: Outlaw all private sales and create an in-place registration/confiscation system.
But don’t take my word for it: Take the National Institute of Justice’s:
“Universal background checks… Effectiveness depends on the ability to reduce straw purchasing, requiring gun registration…”
And it will all be ready to load into a searchable database as soon as Democrats can muster the votes or obtain a ruling to overturn the Tiahrt Amendment.
Besides, If those demanding them were truly interested solely in background checks, and nothing else, they’d be pushing something like BIDS, the Blind Identification Database System. That would identify firearms-disabled persons without creating any kind of transaction record that could then be used for registration purposes, and without compiling records of innocent gun owners. I’m not endorsing such a system, mind you, as it’s still an infringement, even though it would inarguably be an improvement over NICS. I merely point to its utility as a “poison pill” to prove those who say they only want background checks would be lying if they objected to BIDS, and to note all the major gun rights groups have been aware of – and deliberately ignored – this much less intrusive alternative for years.
Red flags, no matter who is lying to you about “due process,” punish citizens and strip them of a fundamental right before they’ve even been charged with a crime, let alone convicted. Such “laws” turn “innocent until proven guilty” on its head.
What was it the insane, totalitarian Queen of Hearts in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland said? “Sentence first—verdict afterward.” Time was, even children understood that to be tyrannical and mad.
And it overlooks two fundamental truths: First, if someone wants a gun, they can get one. If you doubt that, just look at the homicide stats in Chicago or Baltimore. Besides, there are other methods, especially if you’re an enraged male with twice the upper body strength of your “intended.” Second, simply put, if you can’t be trusted with a gun you can’t be trusted without a custodian.
We’re told, “Michigan’s gun ban for convicted domestic abusers would prevent someone from owning a gun for up to eight years after a misdemeanor conviction.”
Eight years. For a misdemeanor.
First, note the truisms about the red flag. Then note that often prosecutors will settle for a misdemeanor plea by holding the threat of a felony prosecution over a suspect’s head, and they’ll give up just because they don’t have the resources or the will to risk their freedom and livelihoods and endure a prolonged legal battle. And fun fact: Even if the “victim” decides the complaint was made in the heat of anger and wants to retract it, once the arrest is made, it becomes “People vs…,” and the prosecutor’s call.
Finally, note a reality about domestic violence charges, as Gun Owners of America documented several years ago: Their “Lautenberg Act Horror Stories” explained how such acts of “domestic violence” as tearing a pocket, flinging keys, or spanking a child could result in a lifetime gun ban.
Yes, the more draconian Lautenberg renders Michigan’s eight years redundant, but now the state can prosecute if the feds won’t.
“The laws are changes that advocates and Democrats in the Legislature have been pushing for, for years,” the CBS story observes.
Yes, but those aren’t the only ones, are they? We’re talking about the Gretchen Whitmer Regime and Michigan Democrats here, who describe their latest Intolerable Acts as “bipartisan, commonsense gun violence prevention bills” because they’re all liars.
They’ll be back for more, and more, and more. Because they’ll take what they can get incrementally, but never lose sight of the goal that they want it all.
Especially those who assure us no one’s talking about taking your guns.
About David Codrea:
David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating/defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” is a regularly featured contributor to Firearms News, and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.
