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Promoted from the diaries by streiff. Promotion does not imply endorsement.
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House Democrats have made clear exactly who they wish to protect with red flag laws, and it’s not the people they claim to champion. In their bid to further restrict gun ownership, the progressive party is pushing full steam ahead to pass laws that would empower law enforcement to confiscate weapons from people without due process.

What is even more troubling for Second Amendment advocates is that some Republican representatives are playing ball with the Democrats, who have been using mass shootings to justify their anti-gun agenda. While prominent leftist politicians like Beto O’ Rourke are calling for gun confiscation, a recent action on the part of House Democrats demonstrates that perhaps they have some limitations on how far they will go to curb gun rights.

Democratic lawmakers voted to advance a proposal encouraging states to adopt red-flag legislation. The legislation provides support to states that strip due process rights from people, allowing authorities to easily seize guns and ammunition from those accused of posing a danger to themselves or others. They amended the bill to empower the federal government to give extreme risk protection orders in certain situations too. An amendment put forward by Republican representatives was rejected.

The rejected amendment would have applied red flag laws to individuals that are known to the authorities as gang members. Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO), who proposed the amendment, explained why the legislation should be altered. “The majority of violent crime, including gun violence, in the United States is linked to gangs,” he said. “My amendment is quite simple. It would allow the issuance of a red flag order against anyone whose name appears in a gang database if there was probable cause to include that individual in the database.”

The Democrats balked at the suggested amendment. They claimed that these types of databases are similar to no-fly lists that have wrongly flagged individuals with no ties to terrorism. “You know, California had these databases, and they finally stopped when they discovered that they had 3-year-olds on the databases as gang members,” said Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA). “So some of these are reliable, a lot of them are not.”

But as Buck indicated, his amendment would apply only to those added with probable cause, which is a higher bar to reach. Democrats continued to object to Buck’s proposal. Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) suggested a rather asinine scenario in which someone writes the number 13 on a piece of paper and is then designated as a member of MS-13.

The House Judiciary Committee eventually voted against the amendment, which would ostensibly protect potential victims of gang violence.

This move on the part of House Democrats is in keeping with the left’s overall approach to gun control, and it is difficult to ignore the racial element in this equation. Progressive media outlets typically amplify mass shootings that take place at schools, malls, or other areas with a high white population. If the shooter is white, they make sure the public knows all about his lack of melanin.

But these same news outlets are suspiciously quiet about the tragic number of gun homicides related to gang activity in inner cities like Chicago and Baltimore. It is apparent that their concern for white victims of gun violence is far more pronounced than their focus on minority victims, who are disproportionately impacted by gang-related homicides. Indeed, it is only when these mass shootings occur that Democrats in Congress push for red flag laws.

While the media and government are having a conversation on the impact of white nationalism on minority communities, the Democrats are ignoring an even more pernicious problem that kills thousands of blacks and Hispanics each year. It’s rather ironic considering the fact that the Democrats claim to be the party that cares about the needs of minority communities. But apparently, their passion for restricting firearms does not extend to protecting the lives of innocent minorities.

This article was originally published at Liberty Nation.

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