Instead, what history has shown, retired Lt. Col. Allen West said, is that these laws will put Americans on the path to losing the right to bear arms, and people becoming subservient to the government and its tyranny.
One controversial part of the Democrats’ new bill would create a universal background check system, but West said most states already have background check requirements. So, codifying them would not change much except to infringe upon the rights of lawful gun owners.
Democrats’ new gun control bill seeks to give “resources to states and tribes to create and administer laws that help ensure deadly weapons are kept out of the hands of individuals whom a court has determined to be a significant danger to themselves or others.”
Generally, these types of laws allow almost anyone to bring a claim to an emergency court hearing alleging that another person is mentally unwell and is a danger to themselves or others. If the court accepts the claim, the person targeted can be “flagged” and prevented from buying firearms and can have any firearms in their possession seized by police.
West said the problem is that mentally disturbed or dangerous individuals, like many of the mass shooters, “fall through the cracks” of the gun control system, which includes background checks and red flag laws.
Mass shooters including Devin Patrick Kelley, Dylann Roof, and Seung-Hui Cho all managed to legally purchase a firearm, even though each should not have according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms, and Explosives’ own criteria during a background check.
In Uvalde, however, where the shooter purchased his rifles from a private dealer, there was no law requiring those private firearms dealers to initiate background checks before transferring the firearm to the shooter.
In a recent letter, 13 Texas Senate Democrats urged their colleagues to pass legislation that raises the minimum age to purchase a firearm from 18 to 21 years old and enact universal background checks.
However, West said law-abiding, responsible gun owners should not be held accountable for the failure of the government, the background check system, and the evil actions of individuals. “Six times in Uvalde, there were call-outs, police call-outs to the home of that gunman. Twenty-one times there were call-outs to the home of Nicholas Cruz, who was the Parkland shooter.”
“Why were those individuals not put into a system, so that they would not be able to go out and purchase firearms?” said West.
He said the state of Florida does background checks and red flag laws with due process, and Congress should shore up the laws already in place.
“They bring individuals in if they see some disturbing things on social media, they continue to follow and track these individuals. If it escalates, then they kick in, you know, a gun confiscation of that individual but they have built the case,” said West.