Here it is Pandoras box. Red Flag laws allow the police to confiscate firearms from a person without due process through an extreme risk protection order. All it takes for a judge to issue an extreme risk protection order is for one person stating that the person is a danger to others or even themselves. But the major issue here is that this is all done without due process.
Breitbart writes Anne Arundel County police chief Timothy Altomare suggests the incident proves the importance of red flag laws.
The Capital Gazette quoted Altomare saying the two officers who went to Willis’s home around 5 a.m. “did the best they could with the situation they had.” He added, “If you look at this morning’s outcome, it’s tough for us to say ‘Well, what did we prevent?’ Because we don’t know what we prevented or could’ve prevented. What would’ve happened if we didn’t go there at 5 a.m.?”
Police say that Willis initially had a gun in hand when he answered the 5 a.m. knock at his door. He put the gun down when he realized officers were knocking, but he picked the gun back up when he ascertained the officers had come to take his firearms.
The officers tried to wrestle the gun away from Willis and it went off, striking no one. But one of the two police officers fired a shot in response, killing Willis.
The details behind the issuance of a confiscation order against Willis have not been reported. All that is known is that a niece said one of her aunts requested the order.
WBALTV quoted Anne Arundel County police Sgt. Jacklyn Davis saying:
Not only are we going to a house to take somebody’s guns, we know they’re armed. We know they have guns, but we have the court telling us this person is mentally unstable enough, that they can’t have guns, that’s the whole point of this order. We don’t have discretion on that at all. It’s an emergency order.
Maryland’s red flag law took effect October 1 and law enforcement predicts over 1,300 confiscation orders will be issued by the end of the…
According to AMMOLAND Michele Willis is the niece of Gary Willis. She described her uncle as a person that likes to speak his mind but was harmless. She stated that her uncle wasn’t a danger to anyone and questioned the police response.
Gun Owners of America has been a vocal critic of so-called red flag laws because of the denial of due process. They view these laws as unjust gun confiscation orders.
“We don’t yet know all of the facts in this case, so we will be watching this story very closely,” said Gun Owners of America Executive Director Erich Pratt. “But in general, GOA opposes red flag laws because they throw out Due Process. That is, they order the confiscation of firearms without a conviction of wrongdoing for any crime.”
Pratt is not alone in not knowing all the facts in the case. In fact, the Maryland Judiciary has denied all requests to see any protection orders dealing with Willis. Although Willis’s niece, Michele Willis, said her aunt took out the order on Willis. She said it was just “family being family.”
Police are also being tight-lipped about the cause for the order to be taken out on Willis due to being legally restrained to the amount of information that can be released to the public because of the law…