The 28-year-old transgender’s attack on the Nashville Christian school highlights the false hope of the red flag laws so often pushed by President Biden and his fellow Democrats.
Red flag laws, sometimes called extreme risk protection orders or, in the case of California, gun violence restraining orders, are trumpeted by the left as a crucial part of keeping Americans safe.
The laws and/or orders allow a judge to empower police to go to an individual’s home and confiscate his guns for a period of time, after which the individual can petition to have his guns returned.
In many cases, the individual gun owner does not know his firearms are being seized until police knock on his door.
The idea of agents/officers knocking on doors and taking guns has led to consistent concerns over due process, which has translated into Republican obstinance toward red flag laws.
Yet as off-setting as the idea of agents/officers knocking on doors can be, another aspect of red flag laws that needs to be highlighted is that such a law would have failed to prevent the Nashville Christian school attack.
Students at a nearby school pay respects at a memorial for the people who were killed, at an entry to Covenant School, Tuesday, March 28, 2023, in Nashville, Tenn. Six people were killed at the private school and church by a shooter. (AP Photo/John Amis)
In other words, although Tennessee does not have a red flag law, it would not have mattered if they did.
One reason it would not have mattered is because the transgender shooter’s parents did not even know she possessed guns. Breitbart News reported that her parents knew she had one gun, once upon a time, but they urged her to sell it and believed that she did. The parents were unaware that she had actually bought more guns, which she kept hidden from them.
Therefore, on the morning the attack was to occur the shooter left her home with a red bag, which the mother now surmises contained firearms. But at the time, the mother was unaware.
Secondly, the transgender shooter had no criminal record–she bought her guns legally–and was not on police radar.
The Daily Beast observed Metropolitan Nashville Police Department (MNPD) chief John Drake indicated MNPD would have taken away the shooter’s guns prior to the attack occurring, but “as it stands, [they] had absolutely no idea who…[she] was.”
So if Tennessee had a red flag law the parents would not have known to report their daughter, as they did not know she had guns. And the police would not have known to come after her guns, because she was not on police radar.
Children and a woman depart the reunification center at the Woodmont Baptist church after a deadly school shooting, Monday, March 27, 2023, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)
Another point to consider, CNN notes that in 1999 Connecticut became the first state to adopt a red flag law. The law did not prevent the December 14, 2012, Sandy Hook Elementary School attack from occurring.
In October 2014 Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signed California’s gun violence restraining order legislation into law. On June 5, 2022, Breitbart News pointed out that California was the number one state in the Union for gun control and also the number one state for “active shooter incidents.”
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and a Turning Point USA Ambassador. AWR Hawkins holds a Ph.D. in Military History, with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.
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