Montana Bill Outlawing Local Red Flag Laws Now Just Waiting for Signature

Montana is a pretty pro-gun state. It’s got one of the most important laws a state can have on its books already, which is preemption. Local governments can’t enact gun control laws on their own. All such measures have to come from the state. They can be local in focus, but the entire state legislature has to vote on it.

Which, frankly, isn’t likely to happen.

But what about red flag laws? I tend to think of them as gun control laws, as you probably do, too. However, one could argue that they’re really not, but are instead akin to a restraining order or something of the like.

Which is probably why Montana’s legislature just voted to outlaw local red flag laws.

A bill to outlaw local governments in Montana from implementing their own extreme risk protection order laws — commonly known as “red flag” laws, which are used by other judicial systems to prevent certain people from owning or buying guns — is headed to the governor’s desk.

The Senate voted Monday to pass House Bill 809, sponsored by Rep. Braxton Mitchell, R-Columbia Falls, which would subject a local government that does put in place and enforce a so-called “red flag law” to fines of several thousand dollars — money which would go back into the state’s general fund.
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HB 809 forbids a local government from adopting any type of ordinance or policy, and from accepting any grant money, that seeks to implement an extreme risk protection order. If a government violated that law, it could face a civil penalty of up to $10,000.

The bill defines an extreme risk protection order as “an executive order or a written order or warrant issued by a judge, magistrate, or other judicial officer, with the primary purpose of reducing the risk of firearm-related death or injury.”

A local government would not be able to prohibit a person from controlling, owning, possessing, or receiving a firearm, nor would it be allowed to take a firearm away from a person.

The lone exception would be when a person is subject to a protection order requested by another person and approved by a judge. While the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022 expanded gun rights in the U.S., it also last year upheld a federal law that prohibited domestic abusers from obtaining, possessing, or using firearms. Courts in Florida and New York have also upheld their states’ extreme risk protection order laws.

Texas recently passed a similar measure, and I mostly made fun of gun grabbers who were completely freaking out over the bill because it wasn’t like anything was going to change.

I still think it’s likely that the state’s preemption law would be sufficient to prevent red flag laws from going on the books in various municipalities

That said, I’m not a lawyer, nor did I play one on TV, so I could be very wrong about that.

More importantly, I can’t dismiss the possibility that someone out there will try by arguing it’s not really about gun control in the first place. Yes, we all know it’s absolute BS. The fact that every gun control group in the country favors red flag laws should be a…well, a big red flag that these are, in fact, gun control measures.

I figure Governor Greg Gianforte will sign the bill, thus putting down this threat before it can really rear its ugly head.

Nothing will really change for most in Montana, but the head explosions from the usual suspects should be entertaining, if nothing else.