Rep. Mike Johnson on Red Flag Laws: ‘Do Process After the Fact Is No Due Process at All’

You know we’ve heard some revealing things this week. It was just a few moments ago our colleague from Tennessee Mr. Cohen lectured us that the Old Testament doesn’t mention the word guns and so we shouldn’t claim that this is a fundamental freedom. You know as usual, he misunderstands the point of scripture and the Constitution.

Here’s the thing. As Americans, we respect and we protect the inalienable God-given right to self-protection and to the protection of innocent lives around us. President Biden said among other outrageous things this week we’ve heard, President Biden said he wanted to ban .9 millimeter handguns. That’s one of the most widely owned handguns by law-abiding citizens in this country.

Mr. Cicilline of Rhode Island now infamously in our committee hearing exclaimed, spare me the BS – that’s not what he said – spare me the BS about constitutional rights. It’s pretty revealing. Mr. Jones in the same hearing just a few moments later, he said if Democrats don’t get their way on the gun control wish list that they will abolish the filibuster and pack the Supreme Court.

They’re saying the quiet parts out loud. See that wish list that they have includes taking away guns from Americans without the constitutionally required due process of law, which is exactly what this bill would do. It would allow the courts to take guns away from people without notice and without even the right to appear in the hearing to defend themselves in court.

Now, the other side is going to tell you, and you’ll hear in the argument here, hey there is due process. Don’t worry about it, they’ll say, because people subjected to this process, they can just go to court and they could petition to get their firearms back, but I’ll let my colleagues in on something that every first year law student learns. Due process after the fact is no due process at all.

Now the other side’s also going to argue here, and get ready for this: They’re going to claim that they’ve come up with a reasonable compromise by just making these gun confiscation orders temporary. They’ll say, it’s only going to last 14 days. They won’t tell you that these orders can be renewed indefinitely.

My Democratic colleagues are going to tell you this bill will save lives, but if you look at the objective studies, the comprehensive studies on this, you’ll find that the red flag laws in all these states have had no significant effect on the rates of murder, suicide, or the number of people killed in mass shootings.

If this bill passes, people may have their information added to the National Crime Databases even though they committed no crime. In what version of America do we think that’s okay. The Democrats claim Republicans don’t care about gun violence, but while they may repeat this over and over, it doesn’t make it anymore true.

If you look at the record, House Republicans have worked tirelessly to combat gun violence by enacting meaningful laws to put more resources into mental health, to provide training for guidance counselors and fund grants for law enforcement. The other side, meanwhile, is actively trying to defund the police, and just last week they voted against giving money to schools to enhance security.

Democrats refused to work with us on legislation that would actually do something, that would actually reduce the rate of gun violence in this country … and instead, they’re taking advantage of tragedies, tragedies. That’s what they’re doing. They’re taking advantage of tragedies to promote their agenda to destroy our constitutional rights, and it’s shameful. 

I’ll tell you this. When Republicans take back the majority next year, we will work to begin to address the root causes of the violence and the mayhem in our country. That day cannot come soon enough.