DOJ Launches Controversial Agency Aimed At Seizing Americans’ Guns
Pro-gun citizens have found many reasons to oppose the Biden administration’s efforts to abridge the rights enumerated in the Second Amendment, but a recent proclamation by Attorney General Merrick Garland has sparked particularly acute backlash from the right.
According to a statement released over the weekend, a new training facility under the umbrella of the Department of Justice seeks to empower authorities and ordinary citizens to begin the process of deeming their fellow Americans an “extreme risk” and potentially facilitate the forcible removal of their firearms.
“The launch of the National Extreme Risk Protection Order Resource Center will provide our partners across the country with valuable resources to keep firearms out of the hands of individuals who pose a threat to themselves or others,” Garland said.
While the attorney general claimed the motivation was to “protect communities from gun violence,” the Firearms Policy Coalition detailed how it could put the lives of law-abiding gun owners at risk.
A number of prominent elected officials, including U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), spoke out forcefully against the perceived infringement on the constitutional rights of Americans.
“Merrick Garland just announced a massive Red Flag Operation that the DOJ will be running by using EVERY spy tool the US government has in order to violate American’s [sic] Second Amendment!!” she wrote on social media shortly after Garland’s announcement. “This comes right after [House Speaker Mike] Johnson fully funded [President Joe] Biden’s weaponized DOJ!”
Others pointed out that the announcement came on the heels of many GOP lawmakers agreeing to a spending deal to forestall a government shutdown.
“What the hell is this evil?” asked Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) in a social media post. “A Federal Red Flag center; We did not authorize this. Announced, of course, just hours after the omnibus passes.”
Rep. Kat Cammack (R-FL) made a clear reference to the language of the Second Amendment in her reaction to the new initiative, writing: “What part of ‘shall not be infringed’ is hard to understand?”
The Firearms Policy Coalition denounced the Republican “turncoats” who voted in favor of the 2022 Safer Communities Act, which paved the way for the latest Justice Department measure.
The agency cited that bill as an integral component of the new center, specifically its role in the creation of the Byrne State Crisis Intervention Program, which the press release claimed “is designed to help jurisdictions implement crisis intervention strategies, including ERPO programs.”
