There has been a lot of talk this week about passing “red flag laws” to help prevent the sort of shootings that occurred in El Paso and Dayton over the weekend. And some reports have suggested Colorado’s new red flag law could be a model for other states.
Not so fast. Maybe Colorado is just stuck in the Old West, but more than half its counties have declared they are “Second Amendment Sanctuary Counties” and their sheriffs will not enforce the law because, they say, it’s unconstitutional. In addition, some cities have declared themselves Second Amendment Sanctuary Municipalities. So the opposition continues. (As far back as 2013, if not before, Colorado sheriffs were refusing to enforce state gun laws.)
Passing red flag laws is easy. Enforcing them and making them work is a totally different can of worms. I wouldn’t be surprised to see lawmakers pass a few such laws just to pacify their voters … before once again turning their backs on the gun problem.
Aw, it’s so cute they think they have the power to decide a law is unconstitutional just because they don’t like it! 🙄
And silly me, I always thought the job of law enforcement was to … duh … enforce the law.
How old-fashioned we are! 😉
Apparently.
This is ever so true. Prohibition might be the best example of a law that was effectively unenforceable. Whatever gun-control legislation might be passed will take many years to have a discernible effect in this country. The USA has more guns than it does people and even if it were ordered that they all be registered, it would require a police state to make it happen. It ain’t gonna. Those long guns and magazines are here to stay.
I find it frightening that so many of those guns are in the hands of people who think they can ignore a law just because they don’t like it or because they, not the courts, decide it’s unconstitutional. Anarchy, anyone? We are a nation of laws and there are legal procedures for changing unpopular laws.
Changing unpopular laws – in court – legally – one case at a time.
Looks like a good resource, although I don’t see an article with the title you’ve provided (if that’s a title).
A juror can change ignore an unjust law. This section can explain.
https://fija.org/library-and-resources/library/called-for-jury-duty.html
Well, that could definitely complicate things, or not, depending on the issue and which side you’re on.