U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst toes the line on red flag bills, but raises concerns about due process

Nick Coltrain
The Des Moines Register

JOHNSTON, Ia. — Both the Constitutional right to bear arms and fears of mass shootings dominated U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst’s town hall Saturday in Polk County.

About half the questions asked at the hour-long gathering touched on firearms in one way or another. One person, describing herself as a teacher, asked when she could go back to working without a curriculum that included active shooter drills. Another warned that so-called “red flag” bills would lead to a “slippery slope” of revoking some Second Amendment freedoms.

Ernst, a Republican from Red Oak, didn't endorse red flag bills, which would allow families or law enforcement officials to temporarily remove firearms from people who could pose a danger, and raised her own concerns with due process before confiscating firearms.

Iowa politics delivered to your inbox. Subscribe to our free newsletter.

Speaking with reporters after the event, Ernst questioned if there was some process that could allow for mental health evaluations to determine if a person should own firearms.

“Most of (the mass shooters), again, there's mental instability there and we need to find a way to initiate actions against them," Ernst said. "Making sure that there is due process, but have qualified individuals that can go through a person's medical records, interview that individual, maybe take statements from those around him to determine whether this person should legally own a weapon and then that would be left up to a judge to make that determination, with those qualified statements."

U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Red Oak, takes questions from constituents, as a part of her 99 county tour, during a town hall meeting on Thursday, March 21, 2019, in the Adel DeSoto Minburn High School Auditorium in Adel.

At times, heckles and cheers from some attendees drowned out Ernst's answers. About 300 people showed up to the town hall, according to the senator's staff.

Protesters first yelled “Do something” — the same chant that drowned out Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine in his first speech after a gunman fatally shot nine people in his state earlier this month. DeWine later proposed a red flag bill.

Several states have variations of red flag laws, which generally allow police or family members to flag a person they believe to be a risk to themselves or others and to seek to have that individual's guns confiscated.

"The red flag laws that exist out there — and a number of states have already passed those, and they vary state to state — but a number of them limit due process for individuals,” Ernst told the crowd before she was drowned out with cheers and jeers.  Ernst added that she wants to see laws “not infringing on anybody's rights as law-abiding citizens.”

President Donald Trump has endorsed a federal red flag law and U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, said background checks and a red flag bill would be priorities once Congress returns from its August recess.

Instead of new laws, Ernst called Saturday for more stringent enforcement of existing laws.

The so-called gun show loophole, which critics say allows some to circumvent background checks, would already be closed if gun shows followed protocol of identifying people who have passed background checks, Ernst said.

She also turned to mental health as a root cause of mass shootings. Many shooters show signs of instability, she said, and meanwhile, the country is short on counselors and school psychologists. An audience member interrupted Ernst, shouting: “We’re short on congresspeople that take action!”

Ernst's town hall was a week after more than a dozen Democrats seeking the presidency spoke at a rapidly organized gun forum in response to back-to-back mass shootings in Ohio and Texas. Ernst, a first-term senator, is up for re-election in November 2020.