Where there is smoke…
They heard you.
This morning during a committee meeting, members of the Oakland Board of Commissioners were discussing the flood of emails they received from their constituents concerned about the possibility of the County enacting local level “Red Flag” laws.
Democrat Chairman of the Board David Woodward chided Great Lakes Gun Rights (but not by name) as conspiracy theorists for warning Oakland County residents about their secret dealings and flat out denied that the Board was considering enacting a “Red Flag” ordinance.
He even went on to say that Oakland County lacks the authority to even pass such an ordinance. (Good, because we agree.)
This goes contrary to the multiple contacts I have received from Oakland County who have all stated that the Oakland County Board of Commissioners was openly discussing the possibility of passing a local “Red Flag” ordinance, which would allow government agents to seize legally owned firearms without due process, for months.
So either this is one big misunderstanding, or someone is lying.
And as the old saying goes; where there is smoke there is fire.
The fact is, we don’t have hard evidence that Commissioners were considering passing a “Red Flag” ordinance.
What we know, and what I know from years of political experience, is that politicians will find ways to hide their dealings from the public eye, either through “caucus meetings” or “executive sessions” that are not subject to open meeting laws.
Yet what happens in these types of meetings is what determines what actually happens in public.
It’s convenient for them, as they can deny any culpability if they are called out for attempting dirty dealing and if they decide to go forward with it they can just claim that they’ve been public about it all along (even if they haven’t).
Here’s what I think what happened.
I have no doubts that there are members of the Oakland County Board of Commissioners who want to see a state “Red Flag” law passed in Michigan.
Heck, they spoke openly during this meeting about their disappointment in the state legislature not taking up any gun control measures this summer.
I also have no doubts that there are Commissioners who would be willing to pass a local level “Red Flag” ordinance even if they knew it was directly contrary to state law.
In fact, that’s what the City Council of Columbia, South Carolina attempted to do until they were smacked down by the state’s Republican Attorney General.
But here in Michigan, we don’t have that luxury.
Our Attorney General, Democrat Dana Nessel, is a lawless anti-gun radical.
She has twice perverted the plain reading of state law and the Constitution in trying to grant authority to government agencies to enact gun control.
First it was the giving the Michigan Capitol Commission unheard of authority to regulate firearms in the Capitol, which was in no way part of its original mission when it was created.
Second it was working with Democrat Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson to give her department the authority to ban lawful open carry at polling places on election day.
Thankfully, the courts struck down Nessel and Benson’s power grab before Election Day 2020, but they have yet to fix Nessel abuse of authority in the case of the Michigan Capitol Commission.
So why wouldn’t a Democrat-controlled Board of Commissioners attempt to pass a local level “Red Flag” law in clear defiance of state law if they knew their partisan pal in the AG’s Office would just rubberstamp it anyway?
For now, it appears that we’ve scared them off from their attempted power grab, perhaps realizing that elections are on the horizon.
Not only that, but perhaps the potential numerous legal challenges they would face and the legal bills they would rack up would distract too much from the rest of their liberal agenda.
But I wouldn’t put it passed them to actually go for it after the November elections, depending on the results.
For now, I’ll settle with being called a conspiracy theorist by a Democrat lawmaker if it means that Oakland County won’t be seeing a local level “Red Flag” ordinance, at least for the short term.
Regardless, thank you to everyone who took action to contact the Board of Commissioners.
Your action put them on notice and let them know that they are being watched.
The fact is, local governments are sometimes the most tyrannical because not many people pay attention to their local politics.
So that’s why we must keep an keen eye on our local government, to keep them honest and to keep them from infringing on our rights.
And it is also why the Office of the Attorney General is so important. Honestly, I believe the Attorney General of Michigan is TOO powerful of an office and it has only gotten worse under Dana Nessel.
Her abuses of authority and protecting her friends from her office are obnoxious. She must be held accountable for these if we have any hope of restoring the rule of law in our state.
There’s much work to be done to defend and restore our right to keep and bear arms here in Michigan and Great Lakes Gun Rights can only do that with the support of patriots like you.
Thank you in advance if you can.
And thank you for staying vigilant in this fight.
I’ll keep you posted if anything else develops.
For Freedom,
