While red flag laws are terrible and a violation of due process, they do at least go through a judge before anything happens. There are still a ton of problems with them, mind you, but at least a judge is involved in the process.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, however, doesn't seem to see that as a necessary part of taking someone's guns.
Now, in New York, all it takes is a phone call to get your guns stripped away from you.
Governor Kathy Hochul has signed off on yet another expansion of New York’s gun control laws, requiring police to confiscate firearms during domestic violence calls. The move has been praised by progressives but slammed by Republicans and gun rights advocates as a direct assault on due process.
The measure, which took effect immediately after Hochul’s signature on October 16th, goes further than a 2020 law that gave officers discretion to remove weapons in plain sight. Under the new mandate, police are obligated to seize firearms if a victim claims to feel threatened or if officers decide a risk exists.
The seizure occurs despite the circumstances and without investigation into the validity of abuse claims.
Supporters frame the law as a public safety tool.
“No one should live in fear in their own home,” said Assemblywoman Amy Paulin, a Democrat who carried the measure in the Assembly. “By ensuring that law enforcement temporarily removes firearms when responding to domestic violence calls, we’re giving survivors the time and safety they need to take their next steps.”
Sen. Peter Harckham, the bill’s Senate sponsor, added, “While I am heartened that this legislation has been signed into law, now it is up to law enforcement professionals statewide to help further protect residents who experience domestic violence.”
There are so many problems here.
First, they're stripping someone's rights from them simply because someone else thinks there's an issue. That's only remotely valid in a world where alleged victims never lie and when police officers on the scene are perfectly neutral and can't be swayed.
We don't live in that world, though. We live in this one.
Even then, we have due process for a reason. Red flag laws are bad enough, but now New York will simply swoop in on a domestic call and, if they decide someone is a bad person, just take their guns even if there's no real threat to anyone.
Domestic calls aren't just where a victim calls because they're scared. It's when neighbors call because they think there is a loud argument. It's when someone hears a loud crash and a loud voice. It's a thousand things, and not all of them point to domestic violence.
Yet this measure will allow suspicious police to just swoop in and take people's guns based on their own feelings, which aren't exactly the most trustworthy things in the world.
I mean, is an officer's gut feeling probable cause for a warrant? Of course it's not. Judges want something more than "I feel it in my bones" before signing off on a paper that essentially tosses someone's right to privacy out the window.
Here, though, that same "gut feeling" is sufficient for a cop to strip someone of their Second Amendment rights. That's wrong on every level.
I get the concern over domestic violence. I really do. However, this ain't the way to deal with it.
Then again, this is New York, where the Second Amendment is really just the Second Suggestion in their minds.
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