Lindsey Graham reiterates support for red-flag gun laws: '2nd Amendment is not a suicide pact'

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) restated his support for red-flag gun laws Monday, despite unease or opposition from conservatives and gun owners who fear the laws would violate their Second, Fourth, and 14th Amendment rights.

After mass murders in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, earlier this month, some Republican lawmakers and President Donald Trump have expressed openness to more stringent background checks for gun purchases, as well as red-flag laws that allow police or family members to petition courts to order the seizure of guns from a person deemed to be a danger to others.

Graham does not believe the laws would result in unlawful searches and seizures, nor does he think it would be a violation of due process for guns to be taken from an owner in the aforementioned scenario. Graham made his argument on Fox News during an interview with Martha McCallum:

There are plenty of judicial proceedings every day in America where somebody is adjudged to be a danger to themselves and others and they're put into a mental health facility. That goes on all the time, so that process would apply to gun ownership.

Nobody's going to lose their gun unless they have their day in court, but we're not going to create a situation where the cops sit on the sidelines and watch somebody blow up when there are plenty of warning signs. The Second Amendment is not a suicide pact, so we have judicial hearings all over America every day, dealing with people who become a danger to themselves and others, and this is just an extension of that concept.

Graham is not sponsoring a federal red flag law, but rather a bill that would create a federal grant program to assist states in creating their own red flag laws. With the grant money, police departments could hire mental health professionals to help them evaluate cases.