Here is another message for the Governor’s mailbox or Facebook page. Just add your name and send it or use the ideas for your own letter.
Dear Governor Hogan,
"Red flag" is a admirable idea: stopping the next school shooter. That's what “Red Flag" really means.
The Maryand legislature’s "Red Flag" bill, HB1302, however, is the worst kind of “bait and switch."
Maryland legislators "baited" us all by claiming they would produce a true “Red Flag bill” for you to sign--to protect school kids, teachers, staff and visitors.
Instead, the sponsors "switched" it up to draft and ram through a late-session bill that we all know intentionally targets adults who already own guns legally -- a scheme that produces only a police response, and offers no resources to overwhelmed Maryland families.
Worse, it doesn't address the real "red flag" issue: disturbed teens intending to commit a mass school shooting.
What happened to the urgent focus on bullied or troubled teens? Where is Maryland's resource help for them in HB1302?
Please, Governor Hogan, reject this election year trap and announce a your own true “Red Flag Initiative” using available state resources:
* Institute a “Red Flag” hotline (call 611) for callers to be directed to a trained “Red Flag” counselor with information and assistance.
* Create a “Red Flag Website” to give families access to the information in plain language about what help is available.
* Offer an online "Red Flag" questionnaire with check boxes to help families and friends understand the need for intervention or counseling vs. a police response.
* Set up a “Red Flag” text or email access for Smart Phone or laptop inquiries.
Governor, let’s be honest: HB1032 is a flawed approach that prioritizes a last-resort, SWAT police approach to emotional and relationship issues that are better handled with other available Maryland resources much earlier in this process.
The police-only response in HB1302 ensures tense -- and possibly fatal consequences -- for police officers and for the people they confront in this unlawful, ill-advised and ill-constructed scheme.
We urge you, Governor Hogan, to use the same sharp focus you have brought to the opioid crisis to create the most effective “Red Flag Safety & Security Initiative" for Maryland by relying on the expertise of medical and legal professionals, social welfare experts, mental health practitioners and law enforcement consultants rather than the politically motivated schemes of legislators in an election year.
Please, sir, you can rescue Maryland’s “Red Flag” process from the misguided politics and unlawful tactics of HB1302 and start over immediately with an all-hands-on-deck approach that will put a Governor’s Initiative in place well before HB1302, which wouldn't even begin to take effect until October.
Your decisive statewide initiatives have already saved lives, and you can save even more lives now.
Sincerely,