Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) explained on Wednesday why he cannot support the bipartisan gun legislation that has been presented as it currently exists, citing concern with “constitutional deficiencies in many red flag laws.” However, he is promising to try to amend the constitutional deficiencies of the bill.
“No one wants to see guns in the hands of criminals, and no one wants to see tragedies like we saw recently in Texas. I’m both a law-abiding gun owner, and a parent, and I want our schools and kids safe,” Paul said, explaining that some aspects need to be improved, such as including “juvenile records of violent crimes … in background checks.”
“Looking at the recent criminal past of anyone is a good idea before assessing gun ownership. However, that idea was paired with many questionable or bad ones in this legislation,” the Kentucky Republican said.
“I cannot support any legislation that funds or encourages laws that allow ex parte gun confiscation without legal representation, or even sometimes without prior notification to the defendant of any accusation at all,” he began, adding that he also “cannot support legislation that funds or encourages laws that allow gun confiscation with a standard lower than the constitutional criminal standard of ‘beyond a reasonable doubt.’
“I cannot support legislation that funds or encourages gun confiscation predicated on anonymous accusations,” he said, also asserting that it is “unwise to prohibit the appropriated funds from being used for firearms or firearms training for any school personnel.” Rather, Paul believes the legislature should encourage schools to take such action.
“Unfortunately, this legislation was assembled as many are – in secret, absent well placed leaks to journalists. There doesn’t appear to be a willingness or time provided to read, understand, debate or amend this bill,” Paul said, promising that he will try to propose amendments to correct the glaring issues in bill, regardless.
As Breitbart News reported, the current Senate gun bill “contains heightened penalties for firearm trafficking and straw purchases, although trafficked or straw purchased firearms were not used in Uvalde, Buffalo, Parkland, Las Vegas, or Orlando, among others.” It also attempts to incentivize states to adopt red flag laws, using Byrne Grants.
A recent survey from Convention of States Action/Trafalgar Group found that a plurality believe red flag laws have “the potential to be abused by local authorities and government officials to disarm their political opponents and/or citizens who disagree with them,” and a majority of Republicans and independents hold the same opinion.
This week, Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and John Barrasso (R-WY) introduced their own legislation, focusing on strengthening school safety rather than gun control.