JULY 2019 NEWSLETTER

 
As our Constitution is more and more besieged, Americans, and I mean you and me, must be vigilant and vocal in defending it. One such issue is the use of "Red Flag Laws", supposedly intended to preemptively prevent shooting incidents by mentally disturbed people. The following article, from the Washington Examiner, describes the Constitutional violations inherent in every single one that we know about. In addition to 2nd Amendment rights, the 4th Amendment also applies, since a firearm is property of the owner, and a probable cause warrant is required prior to seizure of property. Then there is the 5th Amendment: "No person shall be . . . deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law;" Please contact your legislators and oppose these laws in their present form. 

 ~Rick Dalton, CSPOA Exec. VP and Legislative Liaison~


Unconstitutional 'red flag' laws attack the rights of people who might, maybe, at some point, commit a crime

Washington Examiner, by Jenna Ellis Rives, May 7, 2019

Everyone who values our rule of law and the general premise our country was founded upon (that our rights are fundamental, inalienable, and pre-political) should agree with the legal challenges seeking to overturn "red flag" laws across the country. I have not read one such state law yet that is constitutional, and the legal philosophy behind these laws is dangerously illegitimate.

Generally, a "red flag" law is defined as a gun violence "prevention" law that allows law enforcement or some family members to petition a state court to order the temporary removal of firearms from a person who exhibits some form of "danger" indicators that supposedly justify such restrictions. Fifteen states and the District of Columbia have some version of a red flag law.

But prevention is the key word. Our justice system does not punish people before they commit crimes. Through these red flag laws, the state is now empowered to unilaterally infringe upon a right specifically enumerated for constitutional protection in our Bill of Rights without due process and before a person commits any kind of criminal conduct. Just because someone "might" be a danger is wholly legally insufficient to infringe upon their right.

Columnist Paul Bedard on the expanded Washington Examiner magazine

Even if it were constitutional, the logic doesn't follow. Most people who exhibit the same supposed mental health indicators never commit mass shootings. Just because 100% of mass shooters happened to wear a T-shirt doesn't mean we now strip guns from everyone who wears t-shirts. Even if the mental health indicators were rationally related to shootings, in America we simply don't profile our citizens and strip them of their rights as a legal preemption. Our justice system imposes punitive consequences after actual conduct.

We also filter this view of "obvious signs" after the fact in many cases. It's easy to identify a mass shooter after they pull the trigger. To somehow categorize "potential" shooters is akin to thought crimes.

Valid laws must be neutral laws of general applicability and not so overboard as to be unreasonably vague or overreaching, particularly when seeking to foreclose a fundamental right guaranteed protection by the Constitution.


The "red flag" laws are stripping citizens of their protected right to keep and bear arms without due process and without any precursor of actual criminal conduct or even inchoate acts.

We are also guaranteed protection from guilt by association, so to suggest that simply because a person may fit within a certain demographic of supposed "mental health" status warrants a legal justification for preemption of a fundamental right is just absurd.

This is merely a fear tactic the Left is using to impose gun control at whim against law-abiding citizens, enforcing it through judges who will err on the side of "caution" for their own political protection instead of on the side of the rule of law.

I saw the same example of "erring on the side of caution" in legal practice in the context of civil and criminal protection orders. Judges often did not impose the actual standards of proof and burden of production on the petitioner, choosing instead to grant a protection order (both temporary and permanent orders) so that just in case something might happen, no one could blame the judge.
That's not how our law works or should work. It's possible that any person could, maybe, possibly, choose to break the law or commit a criminal act at any time. The mere possibility is insufficient to impose punitive sanctions or infringe on a person's rights.

But red flag laws seek to do just that. We have never in this country supported punishing law-abiding citizens and taking away their rights in the name of "prevention," just because a small percentage of the population is otherwise criminal. This is precisely what our constitutional republic was designed to protect against and expressly forbids.

All crimes, and especially mass shootings, are horrible. We should continue to punish crime, and we must continue to protect our rights.


Available along with many other items from the CSPOA Shop:

Comes with the following items and books:
1 Annual Membership ($50 Value)
1 CSPOA Hat ($20 Value)
1 Are You A David ($15 Value)
1 The County Sheriff ($15 Value)
1 The Magic of Gun Control ($15 Value)
3 Victory for State Sovereignty  ($9 Value)
 

Amish farmer's salve case reflects need to rein in federal regulators
 
by Mark Wohlander

Mark Wohlander is a former FBI agent and federal prosecutor. He currently practices law in Lexington, KY.

Mark Wohlander
As a simple Amish farmer, Sam found himself caught up in a world of thousands of pages of nonsensical administrative regulations, regulations which even the most sophisticated lawyers cannot understand. Because of Sam's inability to understand those thousands of pages of administrative regulations, Sam's world now mimics the world that Alice found herself in when she landed in Wonderland."

In the words of Ronald Reagan, "Government's first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives." More than 35 years after Reagan first spoke those words, what do they mean for each of us?

Well, thanks to the work of the researchers and staff at the George Washington University Regulatory Studies Center, we know that between 2011 and 2015, the federal government published more than 700,000 pages of regulations. We know that in 2016 federal regulatory agencies employed 278,799 employees to interpret and enforce the thousands of regulations enacted to allegedly protect us. We also know that in 2016 these regulatory agencies had a budget of more than $63 billion to enforce the thousands of regulations which have resulted from various laws passed by Congress, a budget which will increase to nearly $70 billion in 2017.

Well again, why should anyone care? Well, if you are like thousands of American entrepreneurs standing on the sidelines and considering opening a business, not only should you care, you should be terrified. There are thousands of minefields which business entrepreneurs must cross each day, minefields of regulations which oftentimes are not intended to protect us, but instead, regulations which are only intended to run our lives. If you fail to understand and comply with the thousands of federal regulations which have been passed to run our lives you face the risk of huge civil fines, or worse yet, you face the risk of being criminally prosecuted.

If you think that it could never happen to you, consider the case of Sam Girod, an Amish farmer from Bath County, Kentucky. For decades, Sam, like many members of the Amish community, has been making and selling salves which contain natural ingredients. Unfortunately for Sam, his products came to the attention of an inspector from the Food and Drug Administration in 2013 because the container for his salve had a claim on the label that the salve cured cancer.
Although Sam's story gets more complicated than can be written in a few paragraphs, because of Sam's claim that his salve could cure cancer, the FDA labeled his salve a drug which allowed the FDA to regulate Sam's packaging, sales, and ultimately his life.

After years of living in the shadow of an over-regulated society on his farm in Bath County, Sam's life came crashing down for his sins of "misbranding" his Chickweed Healing Salve. In the eyes of the FDA regulatory bureaucrats, Sam's crimes were so outrageous that he needed to be sent to federal prison because as a simple Amish farmer he had  the audacity to "manufacture, propagate and process" his Chickweed Salve in an establishment that was not registered with the FDA. Worse yet, Sam had also packaged the Chickweed Salve in a container which "failed to bear labeling containing adequate directions for use." Because of Sam's sins, he was indicted, arrested, prosecuted, and convicted.

At the risk of offending those government bureaucrats who made the decision to destroy Sam, Sam's family, and his community, might I suggest that there are serious misbranding violations which are more likely to cause harm than Sam's Chickweed Healing Salve. For example, how about reassigning the FDA regulators concerned about the sale of salves or raw milk by Amish farmers and use those limited resources to investigate the pharmaceutical companies that have poisoned our entire nation with opiods which these same FDA regulators have approved, opioids which have caused the deaths of thousands of our children, neighbors, and friends.

As for Sam, it is probably too late to return him to his family and the serene and simple world he once knew before the FDA decided he needed to be labeled public enemy number one. As a simple Amish farmer, Sam found himself caught up in a world of thousands of pages of nonsensical administrative regulations, regulations which even the most sophisticated lawyers cannot understand. Because of Sam's inability to understand those thousands of pages of administrative regulations, Sam's world now mimics the world that Alice found herself in when she landed in Wonderland. In the words of Alice, "If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary-wise; what it is it wouldn't be, and what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?" Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll.

If you believe Ronald Reagan was right, and you believe the go vernment's role is to protect the people, not run their lives, then take a moment to do something and say something on Sam's behalf. More importantly, keep Sam, his family, his friends, and his neighbors in your prayers. Remember, if it could happen to Sam, it could happen to you.

In the end, I would invite each of you to join me once again on my imaginary mountaintop, the one I visit so often when I recognize an injustice like the case of Sam Girod. As always, I would invite each of you to help me as I shout as loudly as possible that it is time to reign in the regulators; it is time to restore sanity to the upside-down world of government over-regulation; it is time to erase the thousands of pages of nonsensical and meaningless administrative regulations; and, more importantly please join me as I shout even louder that it is time to fire the bureaucrats responsible for the nonsensical world of government regulations, regulations that have destroyed Sam's once simple world.

*   *   *

Note: The CSPOA has been working on this tragedy and huge injustice done to Sam Girod and his family. This was a heinous example of government bureaucrats creating a criminal. Sam Girod is innocent. Yes, we want Sam pardoned, but it will avail us very little if we do not do the same for thousands of others who likewise, should not be in prison. We are also pushing for the formation of a presidential commission to review all similar cases in order to free all innocent victims of such government abuse.

You can help with this cause and fight for justice by calling the White House, your Senators and U S Representatives, and by donating at www.cspoa.org .

Thank you so much!


Available along with many other items from the CSPOA Shop:

Comes with the following items and books:
1 Annual Membership ($50 Value)
1 CSPOA Hat ($20 Value)
1 Are You A David ($15 Value)
1 The County Sheriff ($15 Value)
1 The Magic of Gun Control ($15 Value)
3 Victory for State Sovereignty  ($9 Value)
 

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