California Moves to Make It Much Easier to Take Guns Without Due Process

A piece of legislation passed by the Democrat-controlled state Senate of California this week would expand the list of people who can ask a judge to take away an individual’s gun. If AB2888 moves to the governor’s desk for signature, it would allow co-workers and school officials to petition a court to take someone’s firearms away from them…even if they have been found guilty of no crime. Even if they have been ACCUSED or ARRESTED of no crime. Only if the person filing the complaint thinks that the individual is a danger to themselves or others. That’s all it takes to suspend a California resident’s First Amendment rights.

Already, a law allowing a select list of people this extraordinary power has been in place since 2016. It passed two years prior thanks to a push from the anti-gun lobby following the Isla Vista shooting that saw Eliot Rodger kill six random bystanders in a public space. Immediate family members, roommates, and law enforcement officers are currently the only ones entrusted to get the restraining order currently.

Gun-rights activists in California are warning that the bill represents a threat to the Constitution.

“It is very dangerous when you go after someone’s liberty for some perceived security,” said Craig DeLuz of the Firearms Policy Coalition. “We all want to do what we can to make sure we keep firearms out of the hands of individuals who can potentially be a danger to themselves or others. But in any case, we must always be careful of violating civil liberties.”

This is not the first time that the sponsor of the bill, Assemblyman Phil Ting, has tried to expand the list. He sent a similar bill to the governor’s desk in 2016, but Democrat Jerry Brown, in a moment of remarkable lucidity, vetoed it. It’s not clear whether or not he’ll do the same when and if this new bill comes to him.

“This is about getting guns out of the hands of the wrong people,” Ting told the Huffington Post. “We’re grappling with this issue of gun violence as a nation. I’ve never said this is a panacea, but it’s just one of many solutions we have to offer.”

Oh, we’re sure that it is.

Democrats like stuff like this because they think it nullifies the conservative complaint that they’re trying to limit everyone’s gun rights due to the actions of a few. But this is just another version of the same thing. You can’t take a person’s guns away without due process and then call it a faithful reading of the Second Amendment. Co-workers and teachers are not legal experts. Furthermore, what’s to stop people from using these laws to disarm their enemies? Or just to mess with people they don’t like? Who is laying down a standard for what makes a person “dangerous?”

Every action the left takes against guns has to be viewed through the prism of truth, which says that their ultimate goal is to take them ALL away. As such, any measure, no matter how seemingly benign, should be opposed out of hand. They are all steps on a path to disarmament.