Editor’s Note: While this article was published two months ago it ably covers the basics of state and federal efforts at Red Flag “precrime” laws designed to preempt citizens’ due process before depriving them of their Second Amendment rights. After the Dayton and El Paso mass shooting events Congressional leaders are effectively in competition to outdo each other in gun control legislation.
[Senator Marco] Rubio’s TAPS Act would encourage law enforcement to give EVERYONE a personal threat assessment (adults and children) and single out those they deem as future threats. That information would then be used as a kind of Precog substitute to “stop dangerous individuals before they can commit an act of violence.
David Leach
The Strident Conservative
(June 10, 2019)
A little over a year ago, I wrote a satirical piece entitled The Minority Report Act of 2018: a Law Guaranteed to End Gun Violence. Using the Minority Report movie as a basis, I demonstrated the extremes Republicans and Democrats are willing to go to find ways to deny us our Second Amendment rights in the name of “preventing” acts of terrorism.
The inspiration for the article came to me after witnessing the overreaction by Trump and the GOP to the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL, and a bill presented in 2016 by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (H.R. 5611). McCarthy’s bill allowed the government to deny gun rights without charges being filed, a trial, or a conviction based merely on a prediction that you’ll someday be a terrorist.
#HR5611 allows govt to infringe your gun rights w/o charge, trial, or conviction—based merely on prediction you'll someday be a terrorist.
— Justin Amash (@justinamash) July 5, 2016
In the Minority Report movie, murders are predicted using three mutated humans called “Precogs” who “previsualize” crimes before they happen, thus allowing would-be murderers to be imprisoned before they kill. And while Precogs are science fiction, Republicans are working to create the next best thing in reality.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbPk2vInGjE
For example, under Washington’s guidance, more and more states are passing Extreme Risk Protection Order laws (aka ERPOs or red flag laws). Red flag laws allow the government to seize weapons from law-abiding citizens without due process.
“[Senator Marco] Rubio’s TAPS Act would encourage law enforcement to give EVERYONE a personal threat assessment (adults and children) and single out those they deem as future threats.”
And who gives LAW ENFORCEMENT a personal threat assessment? Does the TAPS Act address this? I’m not being facetious, I really want to know.
This is something proposed for the Senate’s version. The House drafted its own version in January 2019.
Hollyweird warns of every bad thing coming our way in allegory form; what I call “Hollywooded Up” … hyper dramatized for maximum entertainment quality. But the underlying message is clear: we are warning you what’s coming, fail to heed the warning at your own peril. The concept of Pre-crime was introduced to us in Minority Report with Tom Cruise. Because it was too far out from our contemporary reality, people thought it was pure fiction. Negative Ghost Rider, the pattern is full ! When I heard “the Donald” talking about pre-crime gun confiscation, I remembered Minority Report. It won’t be based on psychic visions from Pre-Cogs floating in a pool, It could be your neighbor’s paranoia and dislike of your gun collection. There’s a well known un-official gun range on BLM land not far from here. It’s littered with spent cartridges everywhere and old target remnants. My pal drove out there to shoot and people were camped there, oddly enough… oblivious to the mountain of spent rounds. When my friend and his dad pulled out guns, these zombie campers called the Sheriff ! The confrontation was taylor made to become a red flag law enforcement. All the zombie campers had to do was accuse my friend of pointing the guns their way. Luckily they did not do that and the Sheriff just laughed off the bizarre encounter. Imagine this happening on the outskirts of Parkland Florida with Scott Israel as Sheriff. Might not have been laughed off.
In fact, when Minority Report was being written almost 20 years ago director Spielberg convened several “futurist” professionals and thinkers to brainstorm on what surveillance tech would be like a few decades down the line. Imagine how it might be deployed if governments and the corporate sector were not arrayed against their citizenries.