PA Bill Number: HB829
Title: In preliminary provisions, further providing for definitions;
Description: An Act amending the act of April 12, 1951 (P.L.90, No.21), known as the Liquor Code, in preliminary provisions, further providing for definitions;
Last Action: Signed in House
Last Action Date: Jul 3, 2024
Maryland Shooting Illustrates What Will Happen If Guns Are Confiscated :: 11/08/2018
There are people out there who we describe as anti-gun who may not want to take away your guns. They might want to make it virtually impossible for you to buy any more, sell yours, or leave them to your kids, but they don’t actually want to take them away from you. No, really, those people do exist.
Others, however, want them all. They want the police to go door to door and toss your house until they’ve found every firearm you have, then taking them away so you can never shoot one again.
We know those people exist. There’s plenty of people telling us that is exactly what they want to happen for us to believe otherwise, despite us warning them of what that would look like.
Well, police in Maryland were trying to confiscate a man’s guns in accordance with a red flag protective order. In the process, it was a demonstration of what confiscation would look like throughout the nation.
Two Anne Arundel County police officers serving one of Maryland’s new “red flag” protective orders to remove guns from a house killed a Ferndale man after he refused to give up his gun and a struggle ensued early Monday morning, police said.
The subject of the protective order, Gary J. Willis, 60, answered his door in the 100 block of Linwood Ave. at 5:17 a.m. with a gun in his hand, Anne Arundel County police said. He initially put the gun down next to the door, but “became irate” when officers began to serve him with the order, opened the door and picked up the gun again, police said.
“A fight ensued over the gun,” said Sgt. Jacklyn Davis, a police spokeswoman.
One of the officers struggled to take the gun from Willis, and during the struggle the gun fired but did not strike anyone, police said. At that point, the other officer fatally shot Willis, police said.
Neither officer was injured, police said, and neither of their names was released.
Oh, and the kicker?
Davis said she did not know whether anyone else was in the home at the time, and she did not know who had sought the protective order against Willis.
In other words, they were coming to take his guns and no one has a damn clue why.
Are you surprised someone got shot? I’m not. I’m saddened by it, but I’m not surprised in the least. It was bound to happen, and it’ll happen again.
Worse, it’ll happen in ways that will make this one look downright peaceful.
There are a lot of people who say a lot of things, things that you or I might think are stupid to say, but they’re still ultimately harmless. Yet red flag laws allow someone to take it personally, go to the courts, and get their guns taken away. I won’t be surprised if this becomes the more low-key version of SWATting someone.
Regardless, though, gun owners get prickly about their guns. We know that without them, we’re powerless against all the evil in the world, and we’re not interested in giving them up.
If the police show up to take away someone’s guns, even temporarily, this is a potential outcome. So are dead police officers, I’m afraid to say.
So imagine how ugly it’ll be if they try to take everyone’s guns on a permanent basis. We’ll see more of this and see it on every street in America.
Tom Knighton is a Navy veteran, a former newspaperman, a novelist, and a blogger and lifetime shooter. He lives with his family in Southwest Georgia. https://bearingarms.com/author/tomknighton/
https://bearingarms.com/tom-k/2018/11/06/maryland-shooting-illustrates-will-happen-guns-confiscated/
