View from Georgia Carry

Excerpts from an Aug. 8 web post by gun rights group Georgia Carry:

There has been a lot of discussion in recent months about passing so-called “red flag” laws or misdemeanor crime of domestic violence (“MCDV”) laws in Georgia.

The general public has a long-standing notion that misdemeanors are relatively minor crimes and felonies are relatively serious.

Conviction of a misdemeanor generally has shortlived ramifications and after the sentence is served there is little impact on the person’s life. Felony convictions, on the other hand, are understood to have long-term impacts on life even after the (relatively longer) sentence is served. The federal MCDV law thus has the ironic provision that a person is too dangerous to possess a firearm but not too dangerous to be part of our free society.

It comes as a surprise to many, therefore, to learn that a MCDV conviction can result in permanent loss of a fundamental constitutional right, the right to keep and bear arms (“RKBA”).

Red flag laws have been passed in 17 states and the District of Columbia. They go by different names, but the basic premise is that a person’s family members or the police may petition a court to seize the person’s firearms on the grounds that the person is, at least temporarily, a danger.

Note the similarity in illogic with MCDV laws. A person is dangerous. Very dangerous. So dangerous that he cannot be trusted with firearms to the point that society should deprive him of his fundamental constitutional right to protect himself. But not so dangerous that he should be confined.

Somehow, the logic goes, he is too dangerous to have a firearm, but he can be trusted with a motor vehicle (responsible for several times more homicides per year than firearms).