FLAGS ON THE FIELD: "Apparently, threatening to kill, maim, harm, choke, and rape are just what guys say online. Ho-hum... not worth mentioning to a responsible adult.".

• Author: Puterbaugh, Dolores T.
• Position: LAW & JUSTICE - Red flag laws

THE ISSUE of so-called red flag laws to identify those who ought to be restricted, temporarily or permanently, from owning firearms is a matter of much debate, and much of that debate, such as constitutional law, is outside my scope of practice. There are, however, four aspects of the red flag debate that touch on my sliver of expertise: moral cowardice, generational grooming, malice, and what one might call diagnostic creep.

Here in Florida, everyone is a mandatory reporter of suspected abuse, neglect, or exploitation of any child or vulnerable adult: end of story. There are no exceptions, no wiggle room for, "Well, I wasn't, like, super-sure," and there are criminal charges of various levels associated with failure to report. Yet, people routinely shirk this responsibility, and turn a blind eye, perhaps assuring themselves it really is not what it looks like. They try to hide their moral turpitude behind a sudden surge of humility about their lack of investigative expertise. Well, it is not their job to be the police, investigators, social workers, and district attorney: it merely is their job to call and describe what they observe. Fairly simple, really, and much more useful than thrusting your face towards a reporter's microphone after the child has been killed or the maggot-eaten elderly person has been taken away in an ambulance. This is cowardice, plain and simple.

Based on what mainstream news media are reporting about their interviews with young people who interacted online with the most recent school shooter (it is June 2022), we have, too, a terrifying trend of generational grooming. Apparently, threatening to kill, maim, harm, choke, and rape are just what guys say online. Ho-hum... not worth mentioning to a responsible adult. Of course, some young people claim to have reported this, but not by taking a screen shot and calling the police, or asking a parent what to do. Instead, they reported it as bullying to the online platform. This is like calling the phone company to complain when someone has telephoned to let you know that person is on the way over to kill you. How have so many young people become inured to this behavior and yet cannot bear to hear that someone believes something different from them or disagrees on some political stance?

Forty years ago, these young women's mothers and grandmothers sometimes did not report rapes, fearing being blamed and humiliated in court. It was, at one time, a reasonable fear; we fought...