This October 2019 tweet from Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell has been making the rounds lately, and understandably so:
Flagging for all the Republicans that have indicated that they’re prepared to back the red flag laws pushed by democrats. This is what you’re backing. You’ve been warned. pic.twitter.com/76jrec9Kji
— Arthur Schwartz (@ArthurSchwartz) June 13, 2022
The tweet itself doesn’t come up in a search for some strange reason, so screenshots are all we’ve got. Here’s Swalwell’s tweet, in the flesh:
Please tell me this lunatic does not own a gun. Reason 1,578 America needs red flag laws. https://t.co/NA9IPs0CDV
— Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) October 12, 2019
Anyway, despite the fact that the tweet is about two and a half years old, it’s quite relevant considering the current national discussion about red flag laws. And Ben Shapiro, being the subject of Swalwell’s tweet, has some thoughts about it today:
I am not in principle opposed to red flag laws. But when sitting congresspeople who screw Chinese spies suggest your right to self-defense should be removed because you oppose his political agenda, that undermines the trust necessary to support such laws. pic.twitter.com/k0sOHTzGRn
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) June 13, 2022
Some tweeters have taken issue with Shapiro’s first sentence, “I am not in principle opposed to red flag laws.” And that’s understandable, given the very valid concerns that have been raised about red flag laws.
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"I'm not in principle opposed to red flag laws"…goes on to explain exactly why you should be against red flag laws on principle https://t.co/gw3PuzbDdm
— Liberty Lockdown w/ Clint Russell (@LibertyLockPod) June 13, 2022
I am in principle opposed to red flag laws because Swalwell is demonstrating here exactly how they would work in practice
He's be perfectly happy if his political opponents were disarmed and helpless against the mostly-peaceful mob https://t.co/ohHGqyaEaB— Michael Malice (@michaelmalice) June 13, 2022
It’s worth considering the possibility, though, that Shapiro is saying that he wouldn’t be opposed to red flag laws if there were no chance for them to be abused by our government overlords. Shapiro’s record on not trusting the government to know what’s best for us is pretty solid. There’s really no reason to believe that he supports red flag laws as gun control proponents and the federal government intend for them to be used.
Ding ding ding. I'm not giving someone a way to prevent me from buying a gun if I oppose taking children to drag shows or whatever the hot button issue of the day is. https://t.co/IqR9zHQePh
— MySugarFreeJourney (@MySugarFreeJrny) June 13, 2022
On their face, red flag laws may sound like a relatively mild way to approach the gun violence problem, one that wouldn’t outright gut the Second Amendment. But the red flag laws that gun-grabbing politicians like Eric Swalwell want to put on the books have so much potential to be abused to strip lawful gun owners of their right to defend themselves and punish their political enemies, and Swalwell et al. have given us no reason to believe they wouldn’t abuse those laws at every opportunity.
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