{"id":1310125,"date":"2019-05-09T20:20:01","date_gmt":"2019-05-10T02:20:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/mulhall-column-pasturing-the-philistines\/"},"modified":"2019-05-09T20:20:01","modified_gmt":"2019-05-10T02:20:01","slug":"mulhall-column-pasturing-the-philistines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/mulhall-column-pasturing-the-philistines\/","title":{"rendered":"Mulhall column: Pasturing the philistines"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n

The April 23 GSPI editorial on Colorado\u2019s new \u201cred flag\u201d law provided an \u201cactive liberty\u201d perspective I haven\u2019t read anywhere else.<\/p>\n

The editorial said, among other things, opponents of the \u201cred flag\u201d law have let \u201cshall not be infringed upon [sic]\u201d rhetoric raise \u201cemotions surrounding the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a fair point that warrants exploration.<\/p>\n

To this end, perhaps a civil discussion on Colorado\u2019s new \u201cred flag\u201d law willing to dispel Second Amendment emotion would dispense with unhelpful concepts altogether.<\/p>\n

First off, you\u2019d want to abrogate the Second Amendment in whole because keeping and bearing arms is a \u201cConstitutional\u201d right, not \u201cwoke\u201d one like Rep. Ocasio-Cortez\u2019 right to housing. Worse, a bunch of dead white guys thought it so important that they invoked that \u201cshall not be infringed\u201d phrase \u2014 a gun-control quagmire for as long as anyone can remember.<\/p>\n

While dispatching that cobweb, you should also eschew the notion of \u201cdue process.\u201d Like the Second Amendment, ratified in 1791, due process is old. Comparatively, the feckless notion that no one should be deprived of rights except \u201cby the judgment of his peers and by the law of the land\u201d is worse because it stems from the Magna Carta, c. 1215. Both are so old they belong in the dustbin of history.<\/p>\n

After setting that decay aside, you\u2019d also want to toss \u201cpresumption of innocence,\u201d an idea with a pedigree as confusing as the words \u201cunder God\u201d in the Pledge of Allegiance, because when you speak of guns, presumption of innocence is just silly.<\/p>\n

Having rid the discussion of such detritus, you\u2019re truly free to focus on the rejuvenated thought the \u201cred flag\u201d law represents.<\/p>\n

To do this, you need look no further than the grounds on which a citizen can, through courts, initiate \u201cExtreme Risk Protection,\u201d or ERP.<\/p>\n

The law\u2019s grounds for ERP cover almost everything you can do with a gun \u2014 everything, that is, but shoot, for by the time a gun fires, it\u2019s simply too late.<\/p>\n

To get ERP, you can have a gun, want one, know where to find one, or simply intend to get ahold of one. Absent these, you can still get ERP if you recently purchased ammo, for like a concealed carry permit. Ammo acquisition puts the lie to any gun-free claim.<\/p>\n

This casts a net so wide that maybe the only people against whom an ERP order might not hold are retired peanut farmer and former one-term President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, if only because they aren\u2019t Colorado residents. And, when it comes to gun law, a wide net\u2019s exactly what you want.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not hard to imagine how this might go:<\/p>\n

Clive: Uh oh, looks like crazy Martha\u2019s going in the sporting goods store. Better get some Extreme Risk Protection.<\/p>\n

Merle: That\u2019s OK. It\u2019s Dick\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Clive: Wait just a doggone second, Merle. Dick\u2019s will still sell you a shotgun, and Lord knows a shotgun\u2019ll give you holes you weren\u2019t born with.<\/p>\n

Merle: Guess yer right. Better git\u2019er some ERP.<\/p>\n

Perhaps one day crazy Martha will snap, but thanks to Clive and Merle, at least Martha\u2019s guns won\u2019t fire.<\/p>\n

Seen in this light, citizens peaceably disarming citizens not only gets the gun control monkey off government\u2019s back, its Satyagraha done safely: You can turn the other cheek without getting it shot.<\/p>\n

Of course, it might get stabbed, gassed, or immolated instead, but those are problems for future legislators in heftier governments.<\/p>\n

Yes, Second Amendment \u201cshall not be infringed\u201d rhetoric really does stand in the way of realizing just how refreshingly free-thinking the \u201cred flag\u201d law is, and the progressive meta narrative the law now embodies may finally put to pasture every nay-sayer who ever gave a lick of credence to presumption of innocence, due process, or that pesky Second Amendment.<\/p>\n

After all, who\u2019d want to be one of those depraved philistines?<\/p>\n

Mitch Mulhall is a husband, father and longtime Roaring Fork Valley resident. His column appears monthly in the Post Independent and at postindependent.com.<\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The April 23 GSPI editorial on Colorado\u2019s new \u201cred flag\u201d law provided an \u201cactive liberty\u201d perspective I haven\u2019t read anywhere else. The editorial said, among other things, opponents of the \u201cred flag\u201d law have let \u201cshall not be infringed upon [sic]\u201d rhetoric raise \u201cemotions surrounding the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.\u201d It\u2019s a fair […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1310125","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-17 04:59:15","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1310125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1310125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1310125\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1310125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1310125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1310125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}