More Red Flag Applications after Governor Demands More ERPOs

“Extreme Risk Protection Orders” ERPOs are designed to allow firearm rights to be removed from a person without the person having a chance to defend themselves in court. They can beg the courts to return their firearms and firearm rights after the fact, but a right delayed is a right denied.

The American Justice System is suppose to allow the accused to have competent representation, a chance to face their accusers, to know what they are accused of and to be judged by a jury of their peers. Red Flag laws turn that on its head.

For competent representation there must be an ability to have a lawyer. As the most recent gun legislation passed by the federal government says, you have the right to legal representation and the state can offer it to you, but the state doesn’t have to. You have to pay for that representation.

Due process is suppose to be protected by the a judge that signs off on the order. No judge is going to deny an request for an ERPO. If the judge gets it wrong and you are not a threat you are denied your rights for a time. Nothing bad happens to the judge. If the judge denies the ERPO and something happens to the person requesting the ERPO then the judge is going to be blamed. Humans are human and are going to act in their own self interests most of the time.

It costs the judge nothing to sign an ERPO thus they will.

If you want to hear a horror story, go visit Divemedic’s Blog regarding how he was falsely accused and had to deal with being a prohibited person for 3 weeks because of a lying ex. My story started with my estranged wife claiming she felt threatened because we were talking loudly and I took a couple of steps back away from her and put my hands in my pockets. Since she knew I carried a pocket knife she was afraid.

My case ended up in court and if I had taken the advise of council today I would be a prohibited person. I didn’t own firearms at that particular time.

Most ERPOs are granted ex-parte. The accuser is in the room telling their tail of horrors and you are just going about your business. You are not there, your lawyer isn’t there. There is nobody to stand up for your rights.

As they say, a good prosecutor can get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich. It is much easier to get a judge to sign off on an ERPO.

You find out when the cops show up on your doorstep to server you with the ERPO and take your guns. More than one such raid has happened at O dark thirty. Just what a person in distress needs, to be waken from a sound sleep with load banging noises as people try to break into their home.

Red Flag laws, ERPOs are all about future crime. The idea is that by looking for indicators the people in power can decide who is going to commit a crime. Once they know that a crime is going to be committed, they can stop that crime by removing firearms from a person before the crime is committed.

That way you get stories of a man that bludgeoned a woman to death and then drove a car into a crowd killing one more person and injuring 17. Man charged with 2 counts of homicide after driving car into fundraiser, allegedly killing mom He didn’t use a gun so I guess this isn’t that big of a deal.

We all know the line “The suspect was known to law enforcement.” In to many of these cases if law enforcement had done the right thing the animal would have been a prohibited person just by being committed or other criminal record. Unfortunately, to many of these animals are given a second and third and fiftieth chance before they commit their evil final act.

The people that do get caught up in ERPOs are often just run of the mill people who pissed somebody off. With the legal system more than willing to punish gun owners it is easy. If the person was suicidal the removal of firearms isn’t going to stop them. If they are intent on doing evil, they will find a way.

After some asshole killed a bunch of people in Buffalo New York, Governor Hochul signed an executive order requiring the state police to use ERPOs more aggressively, to expand their use of ERPOs.

Surprising nobody the number of ERPOs filed in the last three months exceeds the total filed for 2021.

Numbers I would like to see:

1. How many ERPO applications were turned down?
2. How many ERPOs were rescinded when the accused was seen by the judge?
3. How many people were negatively affected by an ERPO?

The left is never interested in the consequences of their actions, all that matters to them is that they had good intentions.
— NYS sees major increase in use of protection orders filed under state Red Flag Law