.@SenatorBrakey grills Speaker Talbot Ross on the potential for “red flag laws” to disproportionally impact the rights of minorities in Maine.
Talbot Ross, who co-chairs Maine’s DEI Commission, was unable to give a direct answer. pic.twitter.com/e2oOuzfX8C
— The Maine Wire (@TheMaineWire) April 8, 2024
The bill in question — a so-called “Red Flag” law — would allow anyone to complain about anyone and cause agents of the State to forcefully seize not only their firearms, but any “dangerous weapons” they might have.
[Sen. Eric] Brakey’s question, to paraphrase, was essentially: Given that gun control laws have historically been used to target and disempower racial minorities, what protections do we have in this bill that would prevent history from repeating itself? …
[House Speaker Rachel] Talbot Ross dodged the question — or was unaware of the racist history of gun control — and the rest of the committee seemed content to move on, but the issue remains worth considering: Is the Maine Legislature about to give the state a radical new power that will be abused in the future to punish political out-groups?
For starters, Brakey was 100 percent right about the history of gun control laws in the United States. From the Founding of the country, through the Antebellum Era, throughout Reconstruction, during the Civil Rights movement and well after, gun control laws have been used to target racial minorities, especially African-Americans.
In every case, the proponents of those measures presented them as necessary for public safety, but the real aim was to create a mechanism to oppress and control racial minorities and political dissidents. …
The lesson of history is that a power, once granted to a government, will invariably be abused in the future when it can serve the ends of whatever political group is in control. In Maine, the prospect that the so-called Red Flag law would be used disproportionately against racial or ethnic minorities may seem slim today.
But what about pro-life Christians who peacefully pray outside of abortion clinics? Would an abortionist be within her rights to have firearms seized from peaceful protesters if she felt threatened by their prayers?
What about parents who voice complaints about local school policies? Could a school board member, feeling threatened, enlist the local police to seize any firearms those parents might own?
What about parents who home school their children or do not want their children forced into receiving experimental mRNA shots? Could such an “anti-vaxx” position be considered a mental illness or a danger to children that warrants forced disarmament?
You don’t have to have a vivid imagination to see how the very gun control laws which have been thoroughly abused in the past could be thoroughly abused in the future. And given the abuses of the power the current Administration has gotten away with scot free, there’s no reason to give any future politicians the benefit of the doubt.
— Steve Robinson in History Shows Gun Control Inevitably Becomes a Political Weapon
One Response
“Talbot Ross, who co-chairs Maine’s DEI Commission”
OK, theres the first problem, that “DEI Commission”, that such a Marxist Soci -alist communism program exists as part of ‘state government’.