{"id":1917392,"date":"2023-04-20T23:12:19","date_gmt":"2023-04-21T03:12:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/bill-lees-red-flag-proposal-is-an-unconstitutional-travesty\/"},"modified":"2023-04-20T23:16:04","modified_gmt":"2023-04-21T03:16:04","slug":"bill-lees-red-flag-proposal-is-an-unconstitutional-travesty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/bill-lees-red-flag-proposal-is-an-unconstitutional-travesty\/","title":{"rendered":"Bill Lee\u2019s Red Flag Proposal Is An Unconstitutional Travesty"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fbill-lees-red-flag-proposal-is-an-unconstitutional-travesty%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1917392&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div class=\"article-content\">\n<p>Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee is asking lawmakers to support \u201cnew legislation that would temporarily block someone who is deemed a threat to themselves or to others from having guns,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/local\/nashville\/2023\/04\/20\/tennessee-governor-lee-vote-gun-legislation-after-school-shooting\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">writes<\/a> Axios.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s one way of putting it. <\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2-long d-flex justify-content-center\" style=\"margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center; \" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-1275396850\">\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-1379703300879-0\" class=\"mb-30\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div  class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-7640a18e1ed0d84acc4369adabd563a6 fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-7640a18e1ed0d84acc4369adabd563a6\"><\/div>\n<p>Another, more precise, way would be to say Lee supports <a href=\"https:\/\/ewscripps.brightspotcdn.com\/af\/a1\/cbbf4c6b47e7af423cf316cb15f8\/temporary-mental-health-order-of-protection-007924.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">a law<\/a> that forces people accused of a precrime to sit down with state-appointed psychiatrists and lawyers and prove their innocence before the government decides if they can keep their guns. If that person says the wrong things, cops can show up at his home, search it, demand the accused hand over his property \u2014 not just any property, but property explicitly protected by the Constitution \u2014 without offering any evidence that he\u2019s committed, or ever planned to commit, a crime.<\/p>\n<p>In <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/THEChrisOB\/status\/1648775043302686721\/photo\/1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">selling<\/a> his bill, Lee claims that guns can be taken from those accused of having a \u201cpsychiatric disorder, alcohol dependence, or drug dependence.\u201d But federal law already prohibits the sale of a gun to anyone who \u201chas been adjudicated as a mental defective.\u201d And most people who drink or take drugs don\u2019t have a propensity towards violence. Excessive drinking might be bad for you, but it\u2019s legal. As is grumbling about chemtrails, pondering how to overthrow the government, and hating your neighbors. <\/p>\n<p>Incidentally, if an alcoholic is found guilty of a precrime, Lee\u2019s bill only affords him a single hearing to rectify the situation for each act of suspension, which can be in effect for up to 180 days \u2014 even if he pulls his life together, repents, and becomes a devout Seventh-Day Adventist. The state can keep asking for extensions in perpetuity.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, even those with persistent depression, an emotional disorder, aren\u2019t often would-be killers. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/11\/08\/well\/mind\/antidepressants-effects-alternatives.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">One in eight<\/a> Americans takes antidepressants. Yet, one suspects laws like this will only stigmatize depression and make gun owners less inclined to seek help. <\/p>\n<div  class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-d8cc09752f5e378cf666eb0064fb418f fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-6\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-d8cc09752f5e378cf666eb0064fb418f\"><\/div>\n<p>More importantly, though, Lee fails to mention in his factsheets that the bill allows the state to take firearms on the basis of a \u201cserious behavioral condition,\u201d which includes \u201cfunctional impairment that substantially interferes with\u00a0<em>or limits<\/em>\u00a0the person\u2019s role or functioning in family, school, occupational, or community activities.\u201d The incredulous italics are mine, because Lee\u2019s standard, despite his contention that there is a high burden of proof, could include basically anyone who\u2019s met the\u00a0psychiatric diagnostic criteria\u00a0for depression and stopped going to a weekly softball game.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Sure, the law includes penalties for false and bad-faith statements by cops and third parties, but those would be all but impossible to prove or prosecute because the basis for the state issuing a \u201ctemporary mental health order of protection\u201d is extraordinarily broad. <\/p>\n<p>If someone is threatening others with violence, Tennessee already has numerous <a href=\"https:\/\/law.justia.com\/codes\/tennessee\/2021\/title-39\/chapter-17\/part-3\/section-39-17-308\/#:~:text=A%20person%20commits%20an%20offense,harm%20to%20the%20victim%3B%20and\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">laws<\/a> on the books that allow for arrest. It already has a law that allows for the immediate detention of people <a href=\"https:\/\/casetext.com\/statute\/tennessee-code\/title-33-mental-health-and-substance-abuse-and-intellectual-and-developmental-disabilities\/chapter-6-mental-health-service\/part-4-emergency-involuntary-admission-to-inpatient-treatment\/section-33-6-402-detention-without-warrant-authorized\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">deemed<\/a> dangerous to themselves or others. Every state does. And yet, in numerous recent mass shootings, the perpetrator <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2018\/02\/28\/589502906\/a-clearer-picture-of-parkland-shooting-suspect-comes-into-focus\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">has been known to the police<\/a>, and they did nothing. <\/p>\n<p>The Covenant School shooting, Lee maintains, makes it impossible not to act. But it\u2019s important to remember that, as far as we know, nothing in Lee\u2019s proposal would have stopped that shooter. The mother, who never appears to have reported her daughter for mental illness, probably wasn\u2019t even aware that her adult child still owned guns. As far as we know, the killer never threatened anyone publicly before the shooting, nor did she pose a danger to herself. For all we know, the shooting was an act of terrorism or conducted over some personal grudge. We won\u2019t know until, or if, the sheriff in Nashville releases her manifesto.<\/p>\n<div  class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-eb7752818c9ac63b9c736c9ab53c5e46 fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-10\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-eb7752818c9ac63b9c736c9ab53c5e46\"><\/div>\n<p>One suspects that gun controllers will soon cook up studies to tell us red flag laws are amazing, but to this point no major study \u2014 including a meta-analysis <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RANDCorporation\/status\/969443083099111424\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">conducted<\/a> by RAND Corporation \u2014 has conclusively found them to be effective. Many of these state laws are even worse than Lee\u2019s proposal as they are permitted <em><a href=\"https:\/\/dictionary.law.com\/default.aspx?selected=696\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">ex parte<\/a><\/em> orders. But even if these laws were useful on the margins, they are a serious attack on the Second, Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendments. \u00a0Red flag laws just give authorities power to work around normal evidentiary standards. Perhaps we should try upholding the tens of thousands of laws that already govern gun ownership before passing new ones.<\/p>\n<p>In his platitude-laden Twitter <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/GovBillLee\/status\/1648757573196079115?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">video<\/a>, Lee frames himself as a courageous nonpartisan, accusing anyone who opposes his proposal of being blinded by politics. The truth is, the governor\u2019s do-somethingism is about the laziest, most politically motivated breed of leadership imaginable.<\/p>\n<div  class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-8886936ed3aaf142d188ce110fc7fd09 fdrlst__b89e9-after-post-content\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-8886936ed3aaf142d188ce110fc7fd09\"><\/div>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\">\n<div class=\"article-author-description fst-italic\">   David Harsanyi is a senior editor at The Federalist, a nationally syndicated columnist, a Happy Warrior columnist at National Review, and author of five books\u2014the most recent, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Eurotrash-America-Reject-Failed-Continent\/dp\/0063066017\/\">Eurotrash: Why America Must Reject the Failed Ideas of a Dying Continent<\/a>. He has appeared on Fox News, C-SPAN, CNN, MSNBC, NPR, ABC World News Tonight, NBC Nightly News and radio talk shows across the country. Follow him on Twitter, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/davidharsanyi\/\">@davidharsanyi<\/a>.<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-tags bdr-top-black mt-30 mt-sm-60 pt-15 pt-md-45\">\n<ul class=\"list-unstyled d-flex flex-wrap align-items-center mb-0 mx-n10 p-0\">\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/bill-lee\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">Bill Lee<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/covenant-school\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">Covenant School<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/guns-2\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">guns<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/red-flag-laws\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">red flag laws<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/tennessee\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">Tennessee<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee is asking lawmakers to support \u201cnew legislation that would temporarily block someone who is deemed a threat to themselves or to others from having guns,\u201d writes Axios. That\u2019s one way of putting it. Another, more precise, way would be to say Lee supports a law that forces people accused of a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":831,"featured_media":1917393,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[6867,6340,5210,7741,24771,5803],"class_list":["post-1917392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist","tag-flag","tag-lees","tag-proposal","tag-red","tag-travesty","tag-unconstitutional"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1917392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/831"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1917392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1917392\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1917393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1917392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1917392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1917392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}