About ten years ago, I warned everyone about the National Defense and Authorization Act, in how it was meant to trample all over the Bill of Rights under the guise of emergency power. This NDAA thing told that any time the military needed to get control of something the government deemed was an out-of-control situation, they could then use the NDAA to suspend the Constitutional rights of anybody and get things under control. In theory. The NDAA was always a bridge too far. It was sold to us as patriotic, just as Homeland Security was, and it lingers in the background of about everything that happens domestically involving the military. My position on things is that I support the military so long as they are fighting for the Constitution. But when they become the enemy under an oppressive government, such as the one that we have presently with China running the Biden administration, then that’s where you don’t want the military to have too many domestic teeth. This is why we should never have let it happen in the first place. Now, to my points in the past, there is a 1300-page bill passing through the House and Senate installing red flag laws that many Republicans have signed on to. Even the NRA has had a weak position on this red flag problem. So, while everyone is looking at the chaos of the Biden administration and election theft by foreign antagonizers, a power grab by the government and the military is happening right under our noses.
Red flag laws are reprehensible. They allow peer pressure to run the world essentially. Before Covid, people might have had a hard time understanding, but it’s what’s happening with the masks. Demanding people to wear a mask or take a vaccine is unconstitutional by every measure of the law. So to get around that law, the government encourages peers to tattle on each other to force compliance that the government has no right to conduct. When it comes to gun ownership under red flag laws, if you don’t wave at your neighbor the way they think you should, or if you don’t take care of a member of your extended family the way they want, they could call up the government hotline and report you as a danger to yourself or others. Then the government could come to your home in theory and confiscate your guns “for your own good.” Just as Obama did, the Biden administration has been trying to use every mass shooting as an excuse to unleash red flag laws as a power grab. When the fundamental problem of mass shootings is likely related to marijuana use, the red flag intends to provoke mental instability into government control over a person’s essence in society. If “they” (potential mass shooters) cannot be trusted, they must be watched and managed as a menace to others.
The government has been trying to get people to accept this line of thought with Covid by introducing the concept that what you do might be a danger to others as a premise. Once we accept that concept, then red flag laws come next. Even Mike DeWine of Ohio, who was supposed to be a Republican, favored red flag laws after a Dayton nightclub shooting that occurred not that long ago. The kid who did the shooting was a drug-using loser from the political left. But DeWine ignored all that and went for a constitutional violation of all gun owner’s property rights. Like Covid, he showed that he was more inclined to centralized government authority than to protect individual rights. And that’s the real danger when we give the government the power to manage a situation on their own and aren’t driven by the inclination of the vote. The misinterpretation of their abilities and timidity can then trample the rights of the people they are supposed to represent. As a little fellow, DeWine may be scared of viruses and other threats, but he does not have a right to impose his limited view of the world on those he was elected to govern.
This latest red flag law is written in that NDAA update bill. If there is a concern over a gun owner, the issue is presented to a military tribunal. From there, the opinions of “experts” can then issue the mandate to confiscate the guns from a property owner. Now the government would say that these are under emergency conditions where the military was involved. Well, ten years ago, that might have sounded like science fiction where the government would shut down the Constitution and become a branch of local law enforcement, but then look what Governor DeWine did over Covid-19. We did see a governor power-hungry and dystopian suddenly go all-in on complete tyranny. The next time might be the next virus or even some other form of attack where the military takes over society and starts making demands on us. Such an occasion could be a storm that knocks out the power grid leaving everyone without power. Or it could be a political upheaval like we saw on January 6th, where people were upset over the election results, and for a good reason, upset. The opposition party then decided that those people and their families were threats to their order, so they arrested them and put them in jail, warning their peers what the power of government could do to them. Under those conditions of a Nancy Pelosi radicalism, such an NDAA provision on red flag laws could be implemented at that time. We’ve already seen the warning signs; it’s not very far-fetched to see how this little thing could become a big constitutional menace.
As to what I would do if such a corrupt court of military officers came to my house, I won’t say directly. Instead, I would point to two books that I had written to express my motives when and if such a thing did happen. One book that I wrote was specifically about this kind of abuse of authority, called Tail of the Dragon. The other book I wrote a long time ago is called The Symposium of Justice. Needless to say, if what the military or a governor or president does is not in the Constitution, I could care less what some skinny jean author of an NDAA bill slides into a massive 1300-page document. It’s unconstitutional and a law that will be ignored and challenged in every way possible. But for those still scared of it, I would remind everyone of the Battle of Wounded Knee, where the military was worried about the Lakota Sioux under Sitting Bull conducting Ghost Dances.
The government went to arrest Sitting Bull. There was a massive shootout, and the government never lived it down. If such a thing happened today among gun and militia groups, it would be much worse than Waco or Ruby Ridge. Only, in the case of Sitting Bull, the Indians there was part of a dying race. The MAGA supporters in the country between Washington D.C. and Los Angeles don’t have much tolerance for Biden and the Democrats. The situation could quickly get out of hand, and the government couldn’t afford what would happen in the aftermath. Any red flag law proposed is against the Constitution, so I’d say at this time, don’t let it distract you. They might want to have complete control over us for their climbs to power. We have seen in Covid that “experts” can’t be trusted, so there is a lot wrong with the NDAA concept that needs to be flushed out in the future. And if the government has plans to abuse their authority, they will be met correctly. We have guns to keep the government in check. Not to surrender our freedoms to those drunk on power and of a timid nature unable to solve complicated problems. They do not have a right to make their problems our problems.
Rich Hoffman
The Gunfighter's Guide: 