By MIA COSTELLO
Alaskan culture is deeply rooted in our independence, our values, and our deep respect for individual rights. That’s why House Bill 89, a so-called “red flag” law being considered by the Alaska Legislature, should concern every Alaskan who believes in due process, the Constitution, and limited government.
At first glance, red flag laws sound like a well-intentioned effort to prevent gun violence. But the way it’s written, it opens the door to government overreach and abuse with almost no checks in place. This bill would allow a judge to order someone’s firearms seized without them ever being present in court, based solely on allegations.
Imagine being stripped of your rights and your property without even knowing there was a hearing. That’s what this bill allows through “ex parte” proceedings — where only one side of the story is heard. There’s no opportunity to present your defense, no chance to present facts. Just an accusation, a court order, and a knock at your door by a police officer demanding your firearms.
Worse yet, this law could be triggered by a wide range of individuals and based on a low standard of proof — “reasonable cause.” That may sound harmless, but in the real world, it’s a vague threshold that could easily be abused in emotionally charged situations like custody battles, family disputes, or misunderstandings.
And while the bill claims to protect public safety, it fails to address the root of the problem. Confiscating firearms from someone in crisis doesn’t offer them any real help. There’s no built-in mental health support, no services provided — just a court order and a knock at the door. The real solution to helping people in crisis is care, not confiscation.
And finally, there’s the broader issue — this law violates the Second Amendment. Alaskans have a right to bear arms. That right should not be taken away without a conviction, without due process, and without meaningful safeguards. If someone is truly a danger, there are already legal tools available, such as involuntary commitment procedures or protective orders that include full hearings and legal representation.
We all want safer communities. We all want to prevent tragedy. But sacrificing the rights of innocent people in the name of public safety is a dangerous precedent — and one that doesn’t reflect Alaska’s values.
House Bill 89 may be called a “red flag” law, but in reality, it’s a flashing warning sign — that government is reaching too far, too fast, and without respecting the rights of its citizens.
Alaska doesn’t need laws that trade liberty for the illusion of safety. We need real solutions — ones that strengthen public safety without trampling on constitutional rights. HB 89 does neither. The Legislature should reject this bill and stand firmly for the freedoms and fairness that define Alaska.
Mia Costello is the Republican minority leader in the Alaska House of Representatives.
Hell no
What a great smile
Red flag laws are unconstitutional.
Leave it to communists to wave (and love) red flags.
Mary Peltola will support that Bill!
The bill as proposed allows someone unrelated to claim you are an immediate danger and allow your guns to be seized with no chance to defend yourself. Since we likely have all observed false claims made in divorces, just imagine what some wingnuts like the ones that make the swatting calls might do. And how do you suppose it’s going to work out when cops show up unannounced to seize guns. It might not go well.
The bill envisions most actions would be where the person is notified and is to appear in court with a chance to defend themself. But there is no provision to afford them legal defense. So there you are in a court, with a stacked deck and no one in your court. At a minimum there should be mandatory hearings with a defender vetted by GOA or NRA. Preferrably GOA. As it stands now this bill is a horror story waiting to unfold.
Worse, it will give the same crowd gleefully using swattings against those of us on the political right yet another weapon. Think there won’t be false claims made? They will. Early and often. Cheers –
Amen!!! THANKS, Mia 👍👍
Red flag laws short cut due process, are unnecessary and dare I say unconstitutional. No way! This bill is a train wreck.
Wonder if we’ll be able to count on the RINO UniParty members like Yundt or McCabe to vote No on the Red Flag law?
Or will they be to busy trying raise taxes on Hilcorp and maintain the outrageous tariffs system Canada has in place against American mfd goods?
Mia Costello,
Great American and Alaskan patriot. Keep up the Good Fight.
100% Mia
There is no reason to have this overreaching law it should be rejected. Just because Juneau is on the West coast we don’t have to start acting like California, Oregon and Washington.
Should “ gender dysphoria” not be called out for what it is. Mentally unfit individuals shouldn’t have the ability to utilize the 2nd amendment
She’s right. It is a bad law, and should NOT be passed.
Well, women get assaulted and shot by crazy ex-things long before “ever being present in court”. You can give back guns, but you can’t give back lives.
More guns do not make everyone safer. Simple as that.
Now do knives, Whidbey.
They are far less dangerous because doing the deed from arm’s length is a far more brazen act than pulling a little trigger from across the room. Gotta fight the hottest fire first.
go ask the British and Germans how its going with knife attacks on children.
Far better than it’s going with the US and AR-15 attacks on them. By a mile. By a hundred miles.
Tell us what punishment should be used for false red flag wavers. What happens to the angry co-worker boss, employee or ex who only wants to ruin your planned hunting trip with family or friends?
Can I go ahead now and red flag the entire LGBT community, they suffer greatly from gender dysphoria and have greatly over represented them selves lately in school shootings? Can we take a rights from every Alaskan on an anxiety medication? Since women are the # 1 abuser of children can we take their guns or maybe make-up or cell phone?
“Once the camel gets his nose in the tent the rest will soon follow”.
More comments from you don’t make you smarter either!
Never claimed to be smart, but do claim to be persistent.
They are fool. Not a Christian and not an Alaskan.
Whidbey, your chronic and terminal extreme radical leftism, and divorcement from reality, clearly constitute a danger to both yourself and others. When do we get to use ideological red flag laws to protect society?
I’d say that the Trump administration already has that well underway with their suppression of the news media, the law profession, and their aggression towards judges and the rule of law.
Whidbey the deluded,
You perfectly illustrate how you little Marxist Monkeys “project” your ideology onto sound-minded conservative people. It is you, and your entire army of leftists (Marxists) that have controlled the media, used the courts to circumvent the will of all Americans (one only needs to hear or read any daily news feed) and see how, yet another trump action or any conservative act is tied up by some activist federal judge. Further, any conservative action is being tied up by some court for some ridiculous reason and hysterically applauded by the extremely pervasive leftist news sources. What planet have you been on? Your rambling rhetoric makes many of us wonder what the hell you have been smoking? Also, please move yourself and as many of your kind of people from Alaska back to California where you belong.
Done, for now.
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What a sexist, misogynist comment Dog. Constantly encroaching gun control makes it harder for people, and more specifically women (the alleged victims described by your pontification) to be able to attain a firearm to defend themselves against the discrepancy of force created by would-be male attackers. Constant chipping away at Constitutionally codified arms rights effects, at a high-level, broad perspective, policy/legal consequences that ultimately leave women susceptible to being victimized in greater numbers and to a greater degree of harm. Nice job. Women should line up to slap you in the face.
For sure, more guns make everyone safer. Just ask the school kids who have been massacred with them. Oh sorry, you can’t anymore, can you?
No, we can’t. But that is a specious argument. Low probability events (school mass shootings in your case) with high consequences do not justify continuously encroaching (with the ultimate goal to eliminate) the natural right to defend yourself using the best available means. Sorry, but that dog won’t hunt. Just how low is the probability? Using California as the highest probability example since CA has experienced the most mass shootings, the site-specific probability of a mass shooting at a K-12 school in CA is between 0.000533 and 0.000884. Once again, an event probability that low does not justify the continuous encroachment on a natural right. But you will never see it that way because yours is a worldview that does not have liberty as the most foundational philosophical pillar. That’s why you can never comprehend or understand, and thus agree, with most arguments here and why most here who do have liberty as the most foundational philosophical pillar of their worldview will never comprehend or understand, and thus agree, with you. It appears then that your only purpose commenting here is to stir up controversy and rile people up.
Women will get assaulted and shot whether there are red flag laws or not. Potential for saving lives approaches zero.
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On the other hand, the potential for abusing this “law” for purposes that have nothing to do with preventing abuse by a significant other is massive, approaching 100%. (Why do you single out women by the way? Like a woman has never abused a man?)
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If you agree with the upset folks that claim Trump denied those gang bangers their due process, but you support this law, you are a special kind of stupid. And, given your past history on MRAK, I would not believe you if you claimed to disagree with those supporting the Venezuelan criminals.
Your first sentence is unproven assertion.
So what are we supposed to do – just sit on our hands and claim nothing can be done? That is indeed the tack we take with school shootings, BTW.
It is not an unproven assumption. In areas where red flag laws are in place, women are still assaulted and murdered. California has red flag laws, and there is plenty of women assaulted. Colorado and Connecticut also have red flag laws, and they both have a higher rate of domestic violence against women than CA does.
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No, we do not take the same tack with school shootings. To my knowledge, there has not been any kind of student murder during school hours at schools where they allow the teachers to be armed, and have armed security. It seems to only happen in the schools where a sign prohibiting guns is posted.
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And, as you note on another article, you cannot control human behavior. The person intent on committing an act of violence will walk right past a No Weapons Allowed sign, or ignore a restraining order, or get a weapon even after theirs are removed because of a red flag law.
Pencil pushing chumps hiding in Juneau trying to control us,
Anyone can call the cops and lie done thousands of times a month in kaliforniastan, new yoik…”they” are finding it a very effective tool. They just need a drunk who’ll say what they want to hear…it’s a means of “getting back” at anyone you don’t like.
Since vehicles have been used to harm others, is that next? Knock at the door (or not) and your vehicle is confiscated? Why stop at firearms? Hammers? 2X4s? Unkind words?
Reductio ad absurdum: A logical argument technique where one attempts to prove a statement by demonstrating that its denial leads to a contradiction or absurd conclusion.
The intended use of vehicles is to transport. The intended use of guns is to kill.
Whidbey,
How exactly is a hot glue gun used to kill?
How exactly is a velocity radar gun used to kill?
How exactly is a water gun used to kill?
Perhaps you could narrow down your definition of a gun? While you’re at it, perhaps you could define what a woman is?
Perhaps we should hold individuals accountable for their actions and not punish the material? Ever consider that? Of course you haven’t, that is why you give your fellow democrats a free pass to ruin everything they touch while berating anyone who you don’t agree with.
Here’s some advice: Don’t go to las school.
The inanimate object has no “intent.” It is an object. It has no ability to make any decision at all.
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Whether the vehicle was created (intent of the creator) to transport is irrelevant. It has demonstrated it is a very effective method of killing and committing violence. In fact, in the US, motor vehicles are better at killing then all firearms combined.
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Ponderer’s statement is absolutely correct. If a red flag law results in an individuals guns being taken away, it MUST remove all other potential methods for harming another human being. That includes vehicles, hammers, poisons, knives, and… wait for it… bare hands.
Alaska Legislators: Any “Rs” who support this will have their names placed on a list, which will be circulated loudly and frequently. Do you really want to commit political suicide?
Unconstitutional and anyone that votes for this should be recalled by their district! Bleeding heart Marxists need to be removed from Juneau! Pack up and move to California or New York; you don’t belong in Alaska!
Red flag laws discriminate against gun owners – period.
If a person is too dangerous to own a firearm, they are too dangerous to be “out and about and free” where they have access to vehicles, knives, and gasoline.
Alaska has civil commitment laws to hold “dangerous” folks, but in these cases the person gets to see a judge and gets legal representation.
Red flag laws are a dangerous and illegal shortcut against our 2nd Amendment rights and are blatantly un-American.
Per AK DPS:
Rate of female victims killed by male offenders per 100,000. (WMMW)
Starting USA 1.17 (2011)
Current USA 1.34 (2020)
Starting AK 2.01 (2011)
Current AK 3.43 (2020)
This is infuriating… “And while the bill claims to protect public safety, it fails to address the root of the problem. Confiscating firearms from someone in crisis doesn’t offer them any real help. There’s no built-in mental health support, no services provided”
Then maybe-and this may sound CRAZY-offer some actual solutions so that people don’t get to a crisis point? Maybe that person with a mental health issue needs mental health care? Maybe that alcoholic wife beater needs treatment solutions?
Guarantee one thing. No one that disputes red flag laws has ever worked with the public in a caring capacity. No one who ever worked in an Emergency Department, or as a police person, as a public school teacher, as a pharmacist, as a public defender, as priest, as a bartender, as a hotel night clerk, or at the McDonalds drive through … .
Seriously. What makes you think everyone who works in those industries agrees with you? And, frankly, why do you think working with the public will somehow make you want to have massive government overreach that violates the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 8th Amendments?
Heller and Bruen were incorrectly decided.
I didn’t begin this discussion talking about assaults on women. Seems that is the main focus here. While an issue of special interest to Alaskans, my concern here is mental health, erratic behavior, impulse control, and innocent lives. My father wasn’t pistol whipped as a night watchman at a local gravel company by one of his former students because the young man was in full control of his right mind and wanted to exert whatever rights he had to possess the gun.
Prove it.