Station:    KNUS, 710 am

Show:       Peter Boyles Show

Guests:    Brophy

Link:        http://peterboyles.podbean.com/

Date:        September 25, 2018

Topics:     Red Flag Laws, George Brauchler, 2018 Colorado Legislative Session, Cole Wist, Gun Control, Gun Safety, Confiscation, Law Enforcement, Mental Illness, Mental Health, Second Amendment (2^nd), Colorado State Senate, Background Checks, Magaziner Limits, 2013 Colorado Legislative Session,

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HOST PETER BOYLES: [00:00:01] Greg Broph[y], your thoughts?

FORMER LEGISLATOR, LOBBYIST, AND STRATEGIST, GREG BROPHY: [00:00:04] So the Red Flag laws are this attempt to find a way to get guns out of the hands of people who are deemed to be mentally unstable. And it sounds really good if you say it fast. And a lot of people find, you know, comfort in that notion. And then a lot of people like me have a red flag raised in the back of my own mind, that, “Wait a minute! If this is about guns, it’s going to be abused. And so the red flag law that was proposed for Colorado allow law enforcement agencies and family members and other professionals to make note of a person who they believe to be dangerous and then go to a court and present their case to a court without the gun owner present or even knowledgeable of the proceeding, and then get an order from the court to go confiscate the guns, and then provide a hearing for the gun owner within a week of that action having happened, where the gun owner would be able to come in and make his or her case that that he’s safe and can own and should be allowed to re-acquire his or her firearms from the authorities. And I absolutely hated that bill. It struck me as something that could and probably would be abused by certain members of the law enforcement community and certain disgruntled family members. And they — you know — they tried to put guardrails in there against disgruntled family members. I just don’t trust anything like that. I thought that thing went way too far. And, you know, it fortunately died in the Colorado State Senate.

BOYLES: [00:02:00] Greg, where does it go from here and what should happen? Your thoughts?

BROPHY: [00:02:02] Well, I mean, obviously we need to concentrate on things that work, that would address mental health issues but don’t violate constitutional rights of gun owners. And I think we can do that within the existing framework. Most of the — George understands this 10 times better than me — most of the time, when I look at proposed gun laws like the background checks law that passed in ’13 or the magazine ban that passed in 2013, I’ve always come to the conclusion that the real solution here is just to enforce the existing laws, to give law enforcement the resources that they need to enforce the existing laws. So, we do have already on the books a mental health hold, where you go out and take the person that you’re concerned about and have them evaluated and see if they are truly a danger. Because it’s not about guns, for crying out loud! If someone is truly a danger, they still have a car that they can run over someone with, they can have knives that they can use to harm people. There’s any number of ways that they can be dangerous that don’t make it just about firearms, that are protected by the Second Amendment, and rightly so. So, what we need to do, I think, is re-evaluate that mental health hold, make sure that we have the appropriate resources to deal with people that have fall into that category. And probably that’s enough.

BOYLES: [00:03:24] Greg, a wrap on this, please.

BROPHY: [00:03:30] Yeah, George is spot on. There there’s an answer in here that that can be found to make things better, that concentrate the resources in an area that actually does that — and not demonize gun owners and take away their constitutional rights — with legislation like that Red Flag bill.