It was news that sent shudders through every person who supports the Second Amendment: ten Republican senators have signed on to a "framework" that will allegedly improve gun safety in America.  You can guess who these RINOs are — it's the same bunch who will always agree to limit American rights to keep up with their friends on the Democrat side of the aisle.  And while there are a couple of good ideas in the framework, the rest of it is useless, harmful, and/or unconstitutional.

According to a statement from the bipartisan group of senators, they have an agreement in principle for legislation that includes "needed mental health resources, improves school safety and support for students, and helps ensure dangerous criminals and those who are adjudicated as mentally ill can't purchase weapons[.]"  More specifically, the senators have agreed on the following concepts, which I've listed along with my comments:

Funding for school safety resources.  If this means armed safety officers and hardened infrastructure, that's good.  Cynically, I don't think it will mean that.

Extending background checks to juvenile criminal justice records and mental health records for buyers under 21.  This is a good idea and might actually stop some of the crazier 18-, 19-, and 20-year-olds from beating background checks because their juvenile records are under seal.

Expanding mental health and support services in schools.  Schools have become lunatic asylums that encourage race-hatred and push students to deny biological reality.  It used to be that liberal colleges took in bright, normal kids and, after four (or five or six) years of marinating these kids in leftist gender and race theories, graduated basket cases.  Now those same theories are part of elementary school curricula, so I don't see schools as bastions standing ready to help students' mental health.

Penalties for straw purchases.  Meh.  The likelihood of this effectively ending gun crimes is limited at best.  Other laws already cover this practice in one way or another, and they've been ineffectual.

Federal government funds for state and tribe red flag laws.  Red flag laws, which deprive people of a constitutional right without due process, are unconstitutional.  That's it.  They are.  And it's no use saying, "But they might save lives" because they also might cost lives.  Imagine a vindictive woman calling in a red flag on her legally armed boyfriend and, once he's disarmed, killing him.

Contrary to leftist and RINO promises, there is no such thing as perfect safety.  Everything comes at a cost, and those costs must be balanced.

Image: March for Our Lives protester by Phil Roeder.  CC BY 2.0.

Before America went crazy in 2020, around 40,000 people died annually from gunshots (the majority of which were and are suicides).  Meanwhile, guns are used defensively between 500,000 and 3 million times a year.  To the extent red flag laws run the risk of unconstitutionally interfering with this massive number of defensive uses, they shouldn't be passed and, if passed, should be stricken.

But what about those RINOs who signed on to that red flag monstrosity?  Here's the list:

The group on the release includes Republican Sens. John Cornyn of Texas, Thom Tillis and Richard Burr of North Carolina, Roy Blunt of Missouri, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Susan Collins of Maine, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Rob Portman of Ohio, Mitt Romney of Utah and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania.

Multiple names on that list voted yes on the $1.2-trillion "infrastructure bill" that is destroying America's economy.  Mitt Romney, Susan Collins, Bill Cassidy, Rob Portman, and Thom Tillis were all on board with that.

Lindsey Graham, on January 6, urged the Capitol Police to shoot people in the Capitol and wants amnesty for illegal aliens.  Pat Toomey has been calling for gun control for almost a decade and castigated Trump for commuting Roger Stone's sentence (handed down as part of the Russia collusion hoax).  John Cornyn has been working for years to try to outlaw private gun sales.  Mitt Romney voted to impeach Trump, and he and Susan Collins sided with Democrats against Judy Shelton's Federal Reserve Board nominee.  Bill Cassidy supported the impeachment trial.

These senators are the old "white shoe" Republicans who believe in big government but want just a little less big government than the Democrats desire.  Generally, they like cheap, illegal labor; big spending projects; gun control; and funding foreign wars (something Democrats like when there's a Democrat in the White House but that RINOs always like).  They'll always quail if called "racist," and they try to be "hip" by jumping on board the Pride bandwagon.  They have little sympathy for or interest in the lives and concerns of ordinary Americans because their entire world is bounded by Congress and the vicious game-playing that takes place there.

If any one of these RINOs belongs to you, drop him an email explaining the problem with red flag laws along with a reminder that Americans aren't made of money.