Local police are using a variety of new tactics in an effort to stem violent crime, but one of the new techniques is troubling.
Using the state’s “red flag” law, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office is taking guns away from people who are determined to be a threat.
However, the gun owners are not being represented by lawyers, which means their rights may or may not be protected.
The sheriff’s office has established a special unit to carry out the new law and it has obtained 59 protective orders, according to the local media. As a result, 35 people have had to surrender either guns or ammunition, or both.
Mayor Lenny Curry is lauding other new approaches being used.
They include a program called Cure Violence, and new technology that examines and records ballistic information and another that detects gunfire in the streets and notifies the police.
Cure Violence is a multi-faceted approach that focuses on deterring or converting known troublemakers. It allegedly has had success in other areas but has been used here only a few months so its effect is not known.
Local lawyer Eric Friday sees problems with the state law that allows police to seize guns owned by people with mental problems.
The new state law, enacted after the mass shooting at a public school in Broward County, allows police to seek a Risk Protection Order from the courts.
Judges authorize the seizures after hearing evidence about the person named as a potential threat.
“What they’re doing with this law is taking away people’s rights based on a judge’s impression of mental health rather than an expert’s impression of mental health,” Friday told Action News.
A 61-year-old woman’s house on the Westside was raided last year and her weapons seized. She had a history of mental problems and violence.
Years ago, politicians decided, based on the advice of liberal psychiatrists, that it was inhumane to house people in psychiatric institutions. The patients were “mainstreamed,” which means unleashed on the public by being turned out on the streets. Mass shootings have increased since that time.
Instead of blaming the politicians, the psychiatrists or the patients, liberals blamed the inanimate objects used in the shooting and now want to take guns away from those with mental problems.
Knowing that the ultimate aim of the gun-grabbers is to confiscate all guns, people are skeptical of the process. Therefore, it must be as fair as possible.
