First there were the red flag laws themselves, dangerous laws allowing for the seizure of firearms while bypassing a citizen’s right to due process. Now that 21 states have enacted red flag laws, the next step has been to make more people, beyond legal or law enforcement professionals, eligible to file a red flag application against another for firearm seizure. Going further, some jurisdictions are outright encouraging the use of red flag laws as much as possible in an effort to normalize their use as a confiscation tool.
During most red flag law political debates, the same lie is regurgitated that these confiscation orders would only be used in narrowly-tailored cases with proof a person poses a danger to themselves or others. The truth, however, is that most of these red flag laws provide scant, if any, due process protection.
In Colorado, state officials have been concerned with the infrequent and unbalanced use of the expanded red flag law that went into effect in 2023. This expansion allows teachers and other educators to make red flag applications directly to the court for firearm seizures.
Apparently the anti-gun authorities believe teachers have not been utilizing red flag laws enough. The supposed solution to this “problem” is not to provide better resources to students or parents nor mental health care for young people, but instead to encourage and create training opportunities specifically designed for teachers to encourage them to use the red flag law more often. Colorado has also been working to make it easier to make red flag applications by simplifying forms and encouraging clerical assistance with writing and filing the orders with the courts.
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, who is running for Governor, recently created a free program to train and encourage teachers on the use of red flag laws. The training, called ERPO-Curriculum, includes two sessions specifically created for teachers. One session covers the basics of the red flag law with the second training session providing step-by-step instructions on how to petition a court for a confiscation order. There is one training version for K-12 and one for college educators.
Incentivizing states to create and use red flag laws was a priority for the Biden-Harris administration, aided by the ill-named Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA) gun control omnibus bill, and Colorado’s focus on teachers is not a first.
On the heels of the BSCA, Michigan took advantage of the act’s federal funding to pass their red flag law in 2023. After the law took effect in 2024, NRA-ILA highlighted a The Detroit News article chronicling the first year of Michigan’s gun-confiscation law, with shocking outcomes involving children as young as 6 and 8-years old.
The Detroit News report indicated that the application of the red flag law beyond the student, to the parents and guardians, was intentional without consideration of due process. The report stated, “Michigan’s red flag law, one lawmaker said, is unique from other states because it specifically addresses situations involving minors and allows officers to confiscate unsecured firearms from parents or guardians even though the actual order is in the child’s name.” According to state Sen. Mallory McMorrow (D), “That aspect, particularly related to juveniles, was something we were very intentional about.”
This perverse encouragement of red flag use has manifest in various ways nationwide. In Minnesota, a “Red Flag” Confiscation Coordinator position was specifically created to help facilitate even more applications. The appointee to that position initially was an extreme anti-gun activist deemed too extreme to even volunteer with Protect Minnesota, Moms Demand Action, and Everytown for Gun Safety, as detailed by Bearing Arms in a report from last month.
Allowing teachers to file a red flag petition for firearm confiscation instead of first going to the parent or guardian of the student or even school officials or law enforcement should raise flags. Incentivizing “something” to be done when that something is ultimately the wrong thing should be a concern for all citizens, beyond the federal government essentially bribing states into adopting red flag laws.
In every effort to expand and increase the use of red flag laws, states continue to prove themselves incapable or unwilling to protect constitutional rights. Having a red flag law on the books was never going to be enough for the activist class and their animosity for Second Amendment rights. It is increasingly likely that this evolving landscape will include more “training” on how to better weaponize red flag laws. NRA-ILA will continue to fight to protect due process and support legal and legislative efforts to oppose these unconstitutional gun confiscation orders.
More Like This From Around The NRA
