Rep. Angela Rigas (R-Caledonia) voiced her strong opposition this week to controversial “Red Flag” laws that have now been signed into law by the governor.

“Tyranny does not announce itself loudly with trumpets,” Rigas said. “It creeps into a democracy one silent compromise at a time. Today you may celebrate because it happened to someone you oppose, but what will you say when they knock on your door and demand your property too?”

These laws, also known as extreme risk protection laws, according to Rigas “Give courts broad discretion to confiscate firearms from mentally sound, law-abiding people based on very little evidence, instead shifting the burden of proof to the defendant to prove they should be allowed to keep the gun they own lawfully. Meanwhile the new laws provide no right to counsel for the defendant, and no right to a hearing or a psychological evaluation before the court issues an order and a person’s guns are seized.”

“This political grandstanding does very little to keep criminals from committing violence,” Rigas said. “I want us instead to empower properly trained, lawful gun owners to protect our families every single day. We can’t spend this much time and debate and move forward so little. We can’t be that slow. Bullets are much faster.”

Rep. Rigas and her office can be reached at (517) 373-1403 or [email protected].