If New Zealanders want to get an idea of how the COL’s gun control and “hate speech” laws will end up working in practice, then they only need to look at the similarly “progressive” US state of Oregon. The home of Bernie Sanders and Portlandia has the second-highest costs of living in the continental US, and some of the strictest gun laws.
It’s also the place where black-masked far-left domestic terror groups rampage with impugnity, smashing public property and bashing journalists and political opponents. All the while, the authorities sit by and watch, if not actively endorsing the violence.
And conservatives are arrested on the slightest provocation.
It’s a veritable green-left paradise.
A former Marine and Iraq War veteran had his guns confiscated under an Oregon “red flag” law after pledging to “wipe out” antifa if necessary.
Shane Kohfield, 32, made the comments at a July 20 rally outside Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler’s house. Wearing body armor and a “Make America Great Again” cap, he was among about two dozen demonstrators who gathered that day to criticize Wheeler’s handling of recent violent demonstration and demand he denounce antifa.
“If antifa gets to the point where they start killing us, I’m going to kill them next,” Kohfield warned through a loudspeaker. “I’d slaughter them, and I have a detailed plan on how I would wipe out antifa.”
Was that a dumb thing to say? Sure. But not only is it protected by the First Amendment, it’s a hell of a stretch to construe it as actual incitement. Note that Kohfield was not actually urging people to actually perpetrate violence – as Antifa and their camp-followers in the media and left-politics regularly do – but merely threatening retaliation to an abstract threat.
Here’s the thing: the American left has not only been openly inciting their followers to unprovoked violence but they have actually been carrying it out. The list of violent attacks on Trump supporters, for instance, just keeps growing. Celebrities and prominent legacy media journalists have explicitly urged violence against everyone from the President to the “Covington Kids”.
None were even so much as censured by Twitter, let alone punished by authorities.
The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task had Kohfield committed to a veteran’s hospital in Portland, where he stayed for 20 days, The Oregonian reported. The task force also invoked Oregon’s new “red flag” law to temporarily seize his firearms […] While the FBI declined The Oregonian’s request for comment on Kohfield’s case, a spokeswoman for the Portland office sent a statement saying that the task force sometimes takes a “holistic” approach in response to a “threat against the people of Oregon.”
Apparently, thousands of black-masked vigilantes beating people willy-nilly isn’t a “threat”. It’s mouthy right-wingers who are the “real threat”.
[Kohlfield] complained that law enforcement is often too lenient with antifa protestors and that the media and politicians dismiss warnings about far-left violence while hyping up right-wing threats.
Last week, a left-wing media network leaked an FBI report that showed the agency sees “black identity extremists” as a bigger threat than white supremacists.
For his part, Kohfield said he issued the warning to antifa in hope of deterring violence, but never planned to hurt anyone […]
Oregon is one of about a dozen states to pass red flag laws in recent years, and at least 16 states now have them on the books. The laws allow authorities to get extreme protections orders to take firearms from people who are deemed at risk of shooting themselves or others, even if they have not committed a crime.
pluralist.com/shane-kohfield-antifa-fbi-red-flag-law
Red flag laws, where they exist, have done nothing to curb gun violence. But they openly invite abuse. Anyone can anonymously snitch on someone and have them banged up. In some states, there is no hearing before a complaint is acted on. A judge simply receives a “statement of concern”, and a gun-owner is summarily whisked off to the looney-bin and their property confiscated.
Don’t kid yourself that New Zealand’s gun confiscation and “hate speech” won’t go down much the same path. Kiwis are already getting monstered by the cops, just for expressing opinions on Facebook. Welcome to Minority Report.