Michael Hammond, the legislative counsel for Gun Owners of America, made an update to GOA members informing them about a new gun grab that Congress is trying to ram through while everyone’s attention is focused on the Wuhan virus.
In his report, Hammond asserted that a number of House “pro-gun” Republicans voted for a large defense bill which contained a “red flag” gun confiscation provision specifically tailored to military members.
Aidan Johnston, GOA’s Director of Federal Affairs, highlighted this congressional farce in an article for the Houston Courant.
The Gun Confiscation Orders (GCOs) passed in the House only apply to people subject to the United States Code of Military Justice. However, these orders would be worse in many regards when compared to “red flag” GCO programs being pushed in state legislatures.
Hammond pointed out that the essentials are the same: “a gun owner can be stripped of his or her Second Amendment-protected rights in an ex parte proceeding by an unsubstantiated allegation from a hostile relative who dislikes him or her. Experience shows that the confiscation normally occurs in a surprise raid on the gun owner’s home in the middle of the night.”
At the moment, the GCO is part of the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).
Hammond called attention to several differences between state red flag orders and the provision that just passed the House:
“Unlike the boilerplate GCOs drafted by gun control groups and passed in 19 states, the House-passed NDAA bill allows the president—presumably, in their opinion, President Joe Biden—to write all of the particulars.”
Hammond declared that “House Republicans were caught sleeping.” Although Trump has threatened to veto the bill, a number of Republicans teamed up with Democrats to pass gun confiscation, with a veto-proof majority to boot.
This illustrates the bipartisan nature of the gun control status quo in Washington D.C.
The only way gun owners can break this cycle is by using the primaries to punish bad incumbent Republicans and getting more principled Second Amendment defenders elected to Congress.
