By: Teresa Mull
Nearly 50 Oregon gun owners are the latest to fall victim to “extreme risk protection orders,” (ERPOs) otherwise known as “red flag gun confiscation laws.”
“At least 46 Oregonians have been ordered to surrender their guns under a new type of court order intended to stop suicides and mass shootings, law enforcement and court officials testified to state lawmakers [in September],” Oregonlive.com reported. “…Analysis showed judges ordered guns seized mostly from people affected by substance abuse, anger or mental health problems. Research presented to lawmakers indicates that trend has continued.”
Gunpowder Magazine has highlighted four scary facts gun owners should know about red flag laws:
1. Law-abiding gun owners are guilty until proven innocent under ERPOs.
These bills open the floodgates for vindictive family members, friends, or John Q. Public to accuse you of almost anything as justification to take your firearms.
2. ERPOs open up a Pandora’s Box of ways for cunning lawyers and conniving family members to exploit gun owners.
Red flag ERPO bills have been written so broadly on two fronts that in some instances, people are given near-endless possibilities by which to use the legal system to persecute gun owners.
3. The time frame for confiscation can go on for months.
ERPOs can last for weeks, months, or up to a year in cases where a gun owner would have to appear for repeated court hearings to try to win back his or her Constitutional rights. In some instances, the government would hold onto your guns for you; other bills have a neutral third party holding onto your guns.
4. Both political parties are supporting ERPOs.
Many would have you believe that Democrats are leading the charge for gun control in the wake of the horrific school shootings of 2018. But nothing could be further from the truth. Republicans are leading efforts as well.
Authorities seized more than 50 firearms from one Oregon county alone.
According to Oregonlive.com, “Responding to lawmakers’ earlier concerns that the gun-removal orders would be subject to abusive overuse by spurned exes or power hungry officers, Travis Hampton, the Oregon State Police superintendent, said those worries ‘have not borne out in the evidence.’”
Teresa Mull is editor of Gunpowder Magazine. Contact her at [email protected].