This is the Kader Daily Podcast for Monday, April 8th, 2019.

I'm Caleb Brown.

Red Flag Laws are meant to help authorities take guns from people who may pose a danger to themselves or others.

Cato adjunct scholar David Koppel studies gun laws and he believes these red flag laws pose

enormous challenges to due process that we should all enjoy.

We spoke following his congressional testimony in March.

Well, a red flag law is sort of like the Department of Pre-crime from the movies where guns are

confiscated from people who haven't committed a crime but there is concern that they may either they may commit a

crime against someone else or commit suicide.

All right so what are the parameters that governments use in order to judge whether or not somebody is at risk of suicide, which of course is something to take very seriously or at risk to commit a crime which we should also

take pretty seriously.

Well the laws vary from state to state and what I was in town for today was a hearing of the US Senate

Judiciary Committee to give funding to states that enact these laws and so my

testimony focused on the best practices versus the worst practices in states that already have these and encourage the Senate to fund laws that are based on best practices and not the worst practices.

But good laws have a fair due process hearing and require a high threshold of proof about the accused individual.

Now to the extent that these things go to court or end up in court, which of course I think they all do before a gun is seized is that right?

That that's right it's all it's all based on a court order but one of the the key issues

is do you do as Donald Trump once said take the guns first

and have the due process later or should you have the due process right from the

very beginning and my point of view was that ex parte orders,

that is orders where there's only the accuser in court

should be

...