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Jan. 11, 2024 - Ron Paul Liberty Report
24:33
Sen. Cornyn's "Red Flag" Gun Compromise...Is A Red Flag!

Sen. Jonn Cornyn (R-TX) and nine other Republicans in the Senate have crossed over to support "compromise" legislation to move the US further toward "red flag" gun laws, where a Constitutional right can be taken without due process. Texans told Cornyn what they think of him and his compromise at the TX GOP state convention last week. The legislation may make it to the Floor this week. Also today: Did Lithuania just spark WWIII?

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Red Flag Laws Controversy 00:14:37
Hello everybody and thank you for tuning in to the Liberty Report.
With us today is Daniel McAdams, our co-host.
Daniel, good to see you this morning.
Good morning, Dr. Paul.
How are you this morning?
Doing fine and tell you.
But I'm just wondering how the Senator John Cornyn's doing.
I wonder if he feels good about himself.
It is an interesting thought because, you know, a guy like Cornyn, you know, he pretends to be something and he gets away with it.
And then all of a sudden he flips.
And what I'm referring to, of course, was the convention, the Republican convention in Houston this weekend.
And he's been around a long time, long time senator, and doesn't have trouble getting reelected.
But I tell you what, the people were awake because just recently he switches.
He really has joined the opposition in trying to water down the Second Amendment.
And he claims it's just a little bit of fairness and taking the guns away from the bad people.
But the way these red flag laws work, the guns are taken away from the good people, and it makes an opportunity for the bad people to designate who are the guilty ones.
So it is really bad.
So the issue here was the red flag laws, and he's coming out and supporting that.
And yet the people at the convention, the hardcore of the Republican Party, you know, they weren't too happy with this, and they had sanctioned him and all this.
So the thought I had is, I wonder what a guy thinks about this way.
He's a fake conservative, and then he goes and does something like this.
Does he feel like, ah, the time was right?
I did my duty.
I'm really pulling together the people that I really agree with.
Otherwise, he would have to be motivated for something like that because surely he would know by now he's not befriending conservatives in Texas.
And there's a big conservative movement with the conservative in Texas where there's challenges with the Democrat.
So it's to me it's so strange other than the fact that I think the respect for John has gone down greatly, especially with anybody who declares himself a loyal Republican or a loyal conservative or a loyal constitutionalist.
They'll say, this is not good.
And they were expressing themselves.
So that's good that they did that.
But politically, John Cornyn will be a good friend of McConnell's.
And that may be one of the motivations is to see the signs coming that the Republicans are going to be more powerful in Washington than ever before.
So he's joined up with McConnell because McConnell is a team player.
So it looks like Cornyn has really, he's been friendly with the team, but now he's going to be a close ally of the team.
Well, you know, the old saying, never let a crisis go to waste, a good crisis go to waste.
And the tragic shooting on May 24th in Uvalde, Texas was that crisis that they're not only the gun grabbers, but the people who hate due process, that was it for them.
That was their chance to move with their agenda, to take advantage of the tragedy that happened for their own political agenda.
And that was, you know, in the person of someone like John Cornyn.
And according to the telling of what happened, there was a Democrat senator, I don't remember her name, but she went to McConnell and said, look, we need to get a compromise here going on this.
Who do I talk to?
And McConnell said, go to John Cornyn.
He's going to work it out.
So now Cornyn has got this group of nine Republican senators.
I would like to think that they're not reading the room very well.
And I would like to think that what happened in Houston over the weekend is an example that Texas Republicans and nationwide Republicans, as they look and see the economic destruction, the attacks on civil liberties, that they might be waking up as well.
But he was booed off stage, but he stayed on stage, but he is booed and booed and booed over this.
And in fact, not only was he booed, but the necklaces they wore that had Cornyn's name, he donated in them.
They threw those away.
And they also, the Texas GOP, passed a resolution, as you alluded to, rebuking Senator Cornyn over this compromise on red flag laws.
And this is what it said in part because, okay, I'm getting ahead of myself.
So the main components of this are restrict gun purchases for those under 21 and bring in the background checks before they were 18.
The other one is incentives for states to pass red flag laws.
And the other one is giving a bunch of money away for mental health programs in the states.
So spending.
So here's what the Republicans did to Cornyn.
Whereas only those under 21 are most likely to be victims of violent crime and then therefore need to defend themselves.
Whereas red flag logs violate the right to due process and are a pre-crime punishment of people not adjudicated guilty.
Whereas waiting periods on gun purchases harm those who need to acquire the means of self-defense in emergencies such as riots.
Whereas all gun control is a violation of the Second Amendment and our God-given rights.
We reject the so-called bipartisan gun agreement and rebuke Senators John Cornyn, Tom Tillis, Roy Blunt, Bill Cassidy, Susan Collins, Lindsey Graham, Rob Portman, Mitt Romney, and Pat Toomey.
And they are the infamous 10 now who are trying to compromise in Washington on this gun legislation.
Yeah, the name of the game, you know, in Washington.
Bipartisanship.
There it is.
There you go.
Yeah.
Where'd you hear that?
But you know, what really is a basis behind this incident and what's happened with the Republican Party is the issue of red flag laws.
And we have written and talked about this quite a bit because it's the lack of due process.
It doesn't work through the court system.
You don't have a jury, but you can be guilty and you can be denied your right to own a gun.
And the worst part is spy on your neighbor, punish a relative that you're in a fight with, and do all these things.
And they will designate that individual a danger.
And without a court hearing or a charge, they're not guilty of a crime.
They may be guilty of something, but that's not the way we determine guilt.
So this is being used now, which is mainly the one big issue the gun grabbers want to get past because they know that it undermines the whole system of the Second Amendment.
And yet it is being passed off to the Cornyn people and the conservatives that this is just a token thing.
This is a compromise.
This is to get guns away from bad people and cut down on all the violence.
So they use that as an excuse, but it's a much bigger deal than we'll be hearing in the media about why he's going on Cornyn.
Cornyn is a good guy and he's just trying to work this out.
And there's been a lot of killing.
And yet he's not much open to our argument that we agree.
These guns in this world today are so horrible.
Why don't we do something about it?
And the guns I'm talking about are the ones that governments wield, the wars that they create.
And that's where the real problem is.
And yet, no, this is private citizen.
The other thing that, you know, the strongest gun grabbers are the far, far left.
And yet they're the ones who have the most protection from government guns and government protection one way or the other.
And they're the ones who can have their gated communities and have hired guns and pseudo-government agents, and some of them are actually government agents who are protecting them.
But at least the average person is very vulnerable to a charge made, a casual charge, but a vicious charge that literally takes away the Second Amendment rights of an individual.
And let's go to this first clip, and that's just a, this just shows the rebuke, if we can.
Texas scorecard, Michael Sullivan.
You've heard of that guy, I think.
GOP resolution rebukes Cornyn.
We already talked about it.
There's the lanyards.
I was looking for that word, Dr. Paul.
There's a lanyards thrown out with Cornyn's name on it.
And let's go to the second mode because I think this is slate of hand.
This is classic deception, subterfuge by the political class.
This is Cornyn's own website, and he's bragging about being a tough guy.
Cornyn, no national red flag law.
As if he's a guarantor.
He says, none of what we're opposing would create a national red flag law.
Well, that's beside the point because what they are creating, and this is in the words of Tillis himself, Senator Tillis himself, if we go to the next one, he's out and open about it.
Our plan increases needed mental health resources, improves school safety and support for students, and helps ensure dangerous criminals and those who are adjudicated as mentally ill can't purchase weapons.
What they do, Dr. Paul, is they provide incentives to the states to adopt red flag laws.
And in regular English, that means bribes.
Here's a bunch of money.
You better pass that law.
And that's exactly what they're doing.
And Tillis himself was being dishonest there because there is no requirement that you be adjudicated as a mental illness to be affected by what they're doing.
And in fact, red flag laws, you already are prohibited from owning firearms if you have been adjudicated mentally ill or violence prone, what have you.
That's already in place if you are adjudicated this way.
No, they're looking for, and they've actually talked about it, they're expanding the reach of this to where just a casual boyfriend or girlfriend could have your guns taken away if they accuse you of being in an abusive relationship.
Yes, this is a little more complicated than a lot of the laws that violate the principle of due process in courts.
But I think this type of problem that we're having and these red flag laws, the principle they're violating is a major infraction on our rights because you are guilty until proven innocent.
And right now, we're living through something that's been gone, what is it, close to two years or something?
Hundreds of people are in prison without due process.
And what are they guilty of?
They're guilty enough to be in prison.
I'm talking about the demonstrators on January 6th.
Insurrectionists.
Yeah, those insurrectionists.
And yet, that to me is so bad.
I mean, this is bad.
And these guns are bad.
But it's the principle that is so bad.
Because if they can do it, you know, the demonstrators, if they can do that with somebody that has a gun and the rights are taken away from you without the due process, they can do pretty much anything they want.
But I think a lot of good constitutionalist libertarians have, for years, have complained about guilt, you're guilty until proven innocent.
And that is the taxing authorities.
I mean, just think of it.
That's your livelihood.
That's your life.
You know, this is your property.
And yet the government can take that away.
And the government can tell you how much you can hold.
If you make such and such a dollar, you can't do anything unless the government tells you that a certain percentage of it you can spend.
And then they regulate on exactly how to spend it.
And certainly don't buy a gun with it or something like this.
It goes on and on.
But that is, and there'll be some other examples that we might mention as well, too, that people are under threat of being charged with a crime, and they have to prove themselves innocent.
Some are a lot worse than others, but the principle is what's bad.
And we'll see what happens.
You know, he apparently Cornyn at the end of the week last week walked out of the negotiations with Democrats.
That might be just a moment of drama, but apparently there were disagreements.
This is according to a piece in Yahoo News.
There were disagreements over proposals to send money to the states that have red flag laws to allow authorities to temporarily confiscate guns from people who are deemed dangerous by courts or by their partners.
And you can imagine, you can see the horrible scenario, Dr. Paul, and I'm sure everyone has gone over it who opposes this.
But, you know, unfortunately, divorces can be pretty nasty things.
You know, all kinds of stuff is out there on the table.
And you can imagine that's one weapon that can be used against someone who hasn't been convicted of any kind of crime and they take away the property they're confiscating.
It's a violation of the Fifth Amendment, the 14th Amendment, et cetera, et cetera.
You know, and this principle is used in other areas.
One right now that is very, very dangerous to our liberties, and that is regulation of speech.
Hate speech.
You can be guilty of hate speech.
And, you know, the founders did not expect the First Amendment to say that we will decide what speech is, good speech, bad speech, or, you know, bad speech or impolite speech or whatever.
And yet, if it's hate speech, that means that you can be deemed guilty of it.
Lithuania Revokes Treaty Rights 00:05:15
And they don't, well, I don't know.
There's probably times that, yeah, they've locked people up, you know, like an Assange, Red Snowden.
They get locked up and punished for this because they have used their right of free speech.
And yet other people, you know, will be arrested.
All this stuff for COVID.
You know, just free expression.
I mean, I have a little bit of sympathy for the physicians that are still fighting the battle of ability to discuss reasonable disagreements or proposals in the science of medicine and turning that into a crime.
You say, oh, well, have they been put in prison?
Well, yes, some have actually been locked up because they said something on some technicality.
But they become guilty of that and that First Amendment right is taken away.
So they work constantly on getting rid of the second.
But I'll tell you what, the regulations and how they get around that and how the corporations are working in combination with the government to enforce these laws by punishing you with economic sanctions against individuals.
So it is the principle of liberty that our country has literally weakened on their understanding and the defense of.
So that to me is it's difficult to promote a cause if your speech is regulated and also your right of self-defense is regulated and that it can be taken away without due process.
Those are very dangerous things.
Yeah, indeed.
Speaking of dangerous things, if I may segue, if we're ready to move into a small, it's one of these small items that we bring up that actually could be a lot bigger than people realize.
If you could skip over and put up that last clip, and this is from our good friend Larry Johnson's website, I encourage people to read his site.
He's a very, very insightful analyst, former CIA counterterrorism officer.
It's called a son of the new American Revolution.
Lithuania may have lit the fuse on World War III.
It didn't get a lot of attention over the weekend.
But, you know, there was a small enclave of Russia on the Baltic Sea.
It abuts Lithuania and Poland, but it's not connected to Russia.
And that has to do with, of course, the breakup of the USSR, where Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia were part of the USSR.
So this part of the former USSR is now part of Russia and is separated by non-Russian borders.
There was a treaty in 1993, right after the breakup of the Soviet Union, where Lithuania agreed to provide for free passage of people and goods through its borders into Kaliningrad.
And that over the weekend, Lithuania has revoked.
They will not allow rail transport from Russia to Russia through Lithuania in violation of their treaty.
And they cite sanctions from the EU as a reason for doing this.
The Russians have called the Lithuanian ambassador to Russia in to give a stern talking to and a written request for more information.
But this could be the little thing that sets off a real conflagration because this kind of blockade, 50% of all their goods goes through on this rail, on this rail connection, and it's now in danger.
That by itself could be a minor incident because you could say, well, these two countries are arguing, they're talking about a treaty, and they should sort it out, the countries that are involved.
But we can't say, you know, it's not a big thing, and we can't say, well, let's just ignore it.
We don't have to make it a federal crime.
We don't have to call Congress in emergency session.
We don't have to decide.
We know right now, at least, we know where we'll be.
Our government, Republicans and Democrats, will be on the side of NATO and the European countries.
But that's where the real problem is, is that we are going to be involved.
It could be a minor thing.
Matter of fact, if we weren't involved to begin with, some of these things, people would be more hesitant.
Maybe they'd have an incentive to work these things out.
And evidently they did.
They were, you know, right after World War II, you know, they started traveling through there.
And I didn't, as I recall, this is not scientific, that during World War II and all, and we had friends that had come from the politics.
And we always assumed, well, they weren't Marxists.
They weren't.
They were a lot of the people who were trying to escape from Stalin, you know, lived there.
People Waking Up 00:03:57
But all of a sudden, now this whole mess is getting stirred up again.
And I hope you're wrong.
It's not the beginning of a disaster.
But that's the problem with it.
And of course, none of this would have happened without NATO's giving the green light.
Little plucky Lithuania would not have come up with this.
And again, this is another great argument why we should have never expanded NATO in the first place and given them such power over war and peace in this.
So it's a terrible, it's a dumb situation.
It's probably an act of desperation because Ukraine, which is the project of the left-wing hawks in Washington and the dummies in the EU, is not going according to plan.
So they're looking for desperate moves.
I'm going to close out, Dr. Paul, with something that we probably should have talked about today because I watched this exchange over the weekend and I really enjoyed it.
Somebody we know, somebody from Kentucky that we know, had a little talk with Fauci a few days ago, and it was about these royalties.
And the scandal should have been a lot bigger, but these employees of Fauci and the others were getting these big checks on vaccines and different kinds of medications that they approved or didn't approve.
So they had this kind of incentive that I think borders on the improper, if not beyond, to only allow certain drugs to treat certain things.
And you can't allow this one because there's no profit in it.
And so here's Senator Paul to Fauci.
Can you tell me if anyone on the vaccine approval committee ever received money from the people who make vaccines?
Fauci, people who receive royalties are not required to divulge them.
That to me sounds like corruption.
You know, hats off to Senator Paul for another Zinger.
Just that little exchange there tells you everything you need to know.
But this, Fauci was probably telling the truth.
They have no requirements to report this.
So this is the way they operate.
It's sort of built right into the system that the real protection, not perfect, but better than what we have, is if pharmaceutical companies are doing bad things and people die from their mistakes or them making profits or whatever they're doing, that they get exemption from the law.
You can't even sue them.
So this is it.
So Fauci, I don't know whether Fauci, maybe Fauci ended up saying, I'll check on that and get back with you.
But there it was.
He hides behind the regulations, and that's the way they do it.
So you can't sue the companies, you can't sue the pharmaceutical company, and they just march right on.
So it's really a bad deal for the American people.
No kidding.
Well, I'm holding on, Dr. Paul, if you want to close this out.
Well, very good.
And I want to thank our viewers for tuning in once again.
And we certainly think that there's a lot to be grateful for and thankful for in this country.
And yet we talk a lot about the problems that we have.
And I've convinced myself, and I'd like to convince others, that that doesn't give us an excuse to be just downhearted and give up and totally negative.
Because the one way you can look at this, as dumb as these things are that they do, and how ridiculous it is, and how wrong it is.
But the information gets out, and when it does, the people do wake up.
And they are starting to wake up because when they hear these stupid, stupid, ridiculous things going on in the social order and what all the economic order, the financial order, more and more people will wake up and they are, to me it's an opportunity for the people to wake up and say, why is it like this?
Enough Is Enough 00:00:42
And this is a chance for people to change their minds and I think when things look bad, I say, ah, new converts, they're going to say, enough is enough.
And that is exactly the way that most of the COVID came to an end because people said, enough is enough when we're sick and tired of it.
We want to take care of our own needs and our own views.
And we don't need the federal government to practice medicine.
And we vote against Dr. Fauci telling us how to take our medications and live within this system.
What we need in this country, more liberty, more freedom, and a greater chance for peace and prosperity.
I want to thank everybody for tuning in today to the Liberty Report.
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