6 States Banned Red Flag Laws — Bloomberg's Outlet Is Melting Down

Bloomberg's pet "newsroom" The Trace doesn't cover gun policy. It *manufactures* gun-control narratives — and right now it's manufacturing fear, because gun owners are winning.

Six states have banned enforcement of so-called Extreme Risk Protection Orders — the red flag laws that let a judge strip your firearms based on an allegation, before you've been charged with anything, before you've seen the inside of a courtroom, sometimes before you even know a case exists. Some of those states didn't stop there. They attached *real penalties* to officials who try to enforce these orders anyway.

The Trace is horrified. **Good.**

Let's call The Trace what it actually is: a gun-control advocacy operation wearing a journalist's costume, bankrolled by Michael Bloomberg's network and allied organizations. When The Trace says red flag bans are "dangerous," it means due process is being restored. When it insists that claims of "rampant misuse" are false, it means it doesn't want you asking hard questions about a system built to skip the part where you get to defend yourself.

That's not a law. That's a warrant-free raid with extra steps and a sympathetic headline attached.

The Trace's playbook is textbook gun-control PR: label red flag laws "common-sense," paint every critic as a fringe extremist, and bury the ugly mechanics in the fine print. Yes, they note that Trump and the NRA once supported ERPOs — and that's true. Both were wrong. But positions are supposed to evolve when the evidence demands it. Gun owners looked at how these laws *actually operate* — secret hearings, no legal representation at the initial order stage, firearms confiscated before the accused knows a case exists — and said no.

The Trace calls that "polarization." **We call it paying attention.**

What these six states have done is reassert something foundational: the government cannot seize your constitutionally protected property without notice, without charges, and without your right to face your accuser in open court first. Penalizing officials who ignore those protections isn't radical. It's accountability — the kind that used to be called American.

The Trace wants you scared that dismantling red flag laws invites chaos. Don't buy a word of it. Violent criminals don't apply for permits and don't wait for court orders. Red flag laws get weaponized against law-abiding gun owners by vindictive ex-partners, hostile neighbors, and activist judges — not the hardened criminals the laws are sold as targeting. Criminal violence doesn't stop because a legal gun owner lost his firearms at a secret hearing he didn't know was happening.

**The gun-control lobby watched red flag laws become their signature post-Parkland achievement. Now they're watching it get dismantled, one state at a time. That's why The Trace is screaming.**

This isn't the end of the fight — it's the blueprint for the next phase. The Trace is already mobilizing readers and donors to push back against these six states. Expect litigation. Expect federal pressure. Expect op-eds calling your state legislators "dangerous extremists" for believing in due process.

Find out where your state stands. If it isn't on the right side of this yet, your legislators need to hear from you before The Trace's allies get there first. The six states leading the way proved it can be done.

Watch what the gun-control lobby does next. Because they are absolutely not done — and neither are we.